It must be used, however, to buy a life time annuity or be placed in bank deposits that will be unfrozen gradually. Annuities and deposits are not index-linked: the assumption is that techniques such as the appreciation of the currency or productivity based wage guide lines will squeeze inflation out. Only a small percentage of CPF (maybe as little as 14%) is actually used for retirement purposes. As Ramesh writes: “It is possible to make a case that income maintenance function is peripheral to CPF.”