Employer pension plans saw assets increase just 1.1% in the third quarter of 2004, lagging the S&P/TSX index, according to data from Statistics Canada.

StatsCan says pension fund managers struggled to increase the value of the retirement savings of 4.5 million Canadian workers over the third quarter of 2004. Assets increased to $663.7 billion, up a slight 1.1% from the second quarter, it reports. The Toronto Stock Exchange gained 1.4% over the same period.

However, this was the sixth quarter in a row to show a positive increase in value since the funds bottomed out in the first quarter of 2003 at $532.4 billion, StatsCan notes.

The funds had revenues of $19.3 billion and expenditures of $8.9 billion for a positive cash flow of $10.4 billion, much less than the $16.8 billion cash flow of the second quarter of 2003, StatsCan reports. Employer contributions remained relatively high at $4.9 billion, but down nonetheless from $5.6 billion contributed last quarter, it adds.

“Of greater significance is that pension fund managers stemmed the significant losses on the sale of securities they experienced in the first quarter of the year. In the third quarter, these losses were cut to half a billion dollars, down substantially from $5.4 billion in the first quarter,” StatsCan reports. “Overall, the industry had net profits (profits minus losses) of $6.5 billion from the sale of securities.”

Pension benefits paid to retirees amounted to $6.7 billion over the quarter. “Benefit payments have been increasing slowly and irregularly over the last few years. They should increase at a more rapid rate over the next few years when members of the baby boom generation start to retire in large numbers,” StatsCan says.