Antón Díez warns pension costs

Antón Díez, general manager of N26 for Spain and Portugal, said on May 15 that Spain’s public pension system is facing heavier pressure as the baby-boom generation retires and newer pensioners arrive with stronger earnings histories. In an interview published by El Confidencial, Díez said people now turning 67 “han trabajado con muy buenos sueldos” and that this adds about 40% in extra cost to the system. El Confidencial framed the remarks around ageing, the retirement of the baby-boom cohort and the expected rise in pension spending over coming decades. ### Who is Antón Díez and what exactly did he say? Antón Díez was identified by El Confidencial as a financial expert and as N26’s director general for Spain and Portugal. In the interview published on May 15, he said the people now reaching retirement age had worked during years of relatively high pay and that their pensions therefore enter the system at a higher cost. (elconfidencial.com) The 40% figure came from Díez’s description of the salary profile of workers now turning 67, not from a government budget document in the material reviewed. His comments were presented as a warning about the cost of new retirees entering a pay-as-you-go system already absorbing demographic pressure. (elconfidencial.com) ### Why does the age of 67 matter in Spain right now? Spain is moving through the final stage of a gradual rise in the statutory retirement age, and El Confidencial’s report focused on people now reaching 67 as a benchmark for full retirement. The same publication has separately reported that Spain will introduce a more flexible method for calculating the pension base from 2026, choosing the more favorable of two formulas in some cases. (elconfidencial.com) The retirement-age milestone matters because it coincides with the entry of the baby-boom generation into retirement. Díez’s point was that this cohort is not only large, but also carries wage histories that can translate into higher initial pensions than earlier generations. (elconfidencial.com) ### What do official Spanish and independent bodies say about pension spending? Spain’s Social Security system has already published official material on pension spending projections, including a 2023 report presented by Secretary of State for Social Security and Pensions Borja Suárez. That report was released as part of Spain’s recovery-plan commitments to the European Union. (elconfidencial.com) AIReF, the independent fiscal authority, said in its pension spending rule report that it estimates average pension spending will rise by 3.4 percentage points of GDP by 2050, compared with a 3-point estimate two years earlier. AIReF also said its role under the current framework is to assess the impact of revenue measures and check whether projected spending, net of those measures, breaches the 13.3% of GDP benchmark over 2022-2050. (revista.seg-social.es) ### How much of this pressure comes from demographics? Spain’s national statistics institute, INE, has projected continued gains in life expectancy and a rising number of older residents. INE said life expectancy at birth in 2035 would reach 82.5 years for men and 87.4 years for women, up from 81.1 and 86.3 years respectively in 2023. (airef.es) INE material on demographic change also points to a significant increase in the number of people older than 70 between 2024 and 2039, alongside a birth rate that remains too low to reverse the ageing trend. Those figures help explain why pension costs have become a recurring focus in Spain’s fiscal debate. ### Where can readers look next for the official numbers? AIReF’s 2025 pension spending rule report and Spain’s Social Security statistics page are the main public reference points for updated system-wide figures. (ine.es) The Social Security statistics portal tracks the number and average monthly amount of contributory pensions in force, while AIReF’s published reports set out the official fiscal checks built into the current reform framework. (ine.es) From 2026, Spain is also due to apply the revised method for calculating the pension base described in Social Security coverage and in El Confidencial’s reporting. That change, together with future AIReF reviews and government pension statistics, will provide the next published markers for how retirement costs evolve as more baby boomers leave the workforce. (elconfidencial.com) (seg-social.es)