On 19 October, the OECD published its 2018 edition of “Pension Markets in Focus” report.
http://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/private-pensions/Pension-Markets-in-Focus-2018.pdf
This report is published on an annual basis. It reviews trends in the financial performance of funded and private pension plans, including investment returns and asset allocation.
Highlights of the report include:
- Pension assets in the OECD area achieved a record USD 43.4 trillion in 2017, well above the 2007 pre-crisis amount of USD 28.2 trillion.
- The real net investment rate of return on pension assets exceeded 4% on average, both inside and outside the OECD area in 2017. The OECD analyses that booming stock markets in 2017 have driven these positive investment returns of pension assets worldwide.
- Real average annual net returns over the last 15 years were positive in 19 out of 21 jurisdictions where the calculation was possible.
- Defined benefit (DB) plans’ assets kept on growing in most reporting countries but they were not able to keep pace with the growth of liabilities, ultimately leading to a deterioration of the funding ratio of DB plans at the national level in many countries.