The market value of Canadian employer-sponsored pension funds slipped 0.1% in the second quarter of 2011, as a rise in the value of fixed income assets was offset by a drop in equity investments, Statistics Canada said.
The agency said that pension funds has assets totaling $1.08 trillion at the end of the quarter, after funds’ investments in bonds increased by 2.2% to $384.7 billion. But this gain was offset by a 3.4% drop in the value of stocks to $361.9 billion. Foreign investments accounted for 30% of total pension fund assets.
Revenues in the second quarter declined 8.0% to $27.5 billion, while expenditures rose 32.9% to $17.1 billion as a result of increased losses on the sale of securities. And, as a result, net income declined 39% to $10.4 billion, StatsCan said.
Employer and employee contributions in the second quarter increased 7.5% to $11.1 billion. Benefits paid to retirees increased 5.4% to $10.8 billion.
In total, about 6 million Canadian workers are members of employer pension plans. Of this group, 5.0 million workers are members of trusteed plans, StatsCan’s data only covers trusteed plans. The remaining 1 million workers with employer pension plans are managed principally by insurance company contracts.