Pension fund assets surged in the first quarter, amid both market gains and increasing net income, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.
“The market value of Canadian employer-sponsored pension funds totalled $1.6 trillion at the end of the first quarter, up 6.9% from the fourth quarter of 2014,” StatsCan said in a statement.
Over the same period, pension fund revenue grew 8.6% to $47.5 billion, StatsCan added, noting that the profits from the sale of securities rose 14.9%. Expenditures declined 6.5% in the first quarter, the government agency said, pushing net income up by 21.6% to $28.6 billion in the quarter.
The value of Canadian pension funds’ foreign investments increased by 7.3% during the first quarter, outpacing the 5.0% gain in the value of equities, the 5.2% increase in the value of bond holdings, and the 5.6% increase in real estate assets.
Bonds make up 35.1% of total assets, and 29.6% is in stocks. Foreign assets now and comprise 34.1% of total pension fund assets.
More than 6.2 million Canadian workers are covered by employer-sponsored pensions, StatsCan said.