Presenting its public finance assessment report on Friday, the independent monitoring and macroeconomic and budgetary forecasting body took into account the new European Commission “Ageing report”, in which Luxembourg’s population is forecast to reach 0.99 million in 2060 (revised down from its 2015 report, when the population was forecast for 1.1 million). Around a quarter of that number will be aged over 65.

The report reiterated the recommendations made in 2017 that the aging population poses a challenge to pension funding. Its authors further suggest bias in the calculations made by statistics body Statec with regard to employment growth and the general government budget balance.

The CNFP said, however, that taking into account the volatility of each country’s economy, Luxembourg’s performance forecast was comparable to those of neighbours Germany, Belgium and France.