The net profit of Russian non-state-owned pension funds in the first quarter of 2019 increased by 15.8% compared with the figure for the same period of 2018 and amounted to 81.7 billion rubles ($1.29 billion), TASS reported citing data published by the Bank of Russia.
The weighted average return on investment of pension savings in annual terms increased by 0.9 percentage points to 9%. Of the 34 funds that work with pension savings, 27 showed a yield higher than inflation, with private funds being eight out of the country’s top 10. Two funds in the first quarter of 2019 suffered losses (compared to seven funds in 2018).
“Three-quarters of the non-state-run pension funds showed the profitability of pension savings higher than the yield of VEB on the expanded portfolio (7.7% per annum), of which the yield of three funds was higher than the yield of VEB on the government securities portfolio (11.7%),” said the central bank.
The weighted average yield from the placement of pension reserves decreased by 3.1 percentage points to 6.5%. The yield above inflation was shown by 30 out of 49 funds working with pension reserves, while five funds reported losses, the regulator said.
The main object of investments of pension savings and pension reserves are corporate bonds, according to the Bank of Russia. Their share in the structure of pension savings amounted to 47.8% (an increase of 0.9 percentage points for the quarter). The share of government securities increased by 0.3 percentage points and amounted to 37.7%. In the structure of pension reserves, the share of corporate bonds increased by 1.2 percentage points to 40.3%. Government bonds jumped 0.3 percentage points to 12.5%.
