The Spanish government has approved a plan to raise the official retirement age from 65 to 67 to help the social security system cope with a rapidly ageing population.

Finance Minister Elena Salgado said the government will introduce the reform gradually from 2013. She stressed there will be ample time to discuss the plan. The country's two biggest unions have already condemned the it. Spain's employer association has called for the retirement age to be brought up to 70.
 

The announcement comes a day after the National Statistics Institute published a study predicting that by 2049 there will be as many people of working age as people of 65 and over. On Friday, the institute reported that in the fourth quarter the country's unemployment had risen to nearly 19 percent, one of the highest rates in the European Union.

Spanish pensioners in Arcos (Photo: flickr/anneslice)