OECD: Pension fund assets in the OECD area decline in 2018

31 May 2019

Calculated in national currencies, pension fund assets declined in 12 out of 34 reporting OECD countries, including some of the largest pension markets: Japan (-1.1%), the Netherlands (-1.2%), Switzerland (-0.7%), the United Kingdom (-0.3%) and the United States (-5.0%).

In some countries, other vehicles than pension funds are used to save for retirement. Examples include pension rights included in employers’ books (Austria, Germany, Sweden); pension insurance contracts (Belgium, Denmark, France, Sweden); and other vehicles offered and managed by banks, investment companies or other entities (Belgium, Denmark, United States). More assets were accumulated in these other vehicles than in pension funds in Denmark and Latvia in 2018. Denmark has the largest amount of pension assets relative to GDP when considering the whole private pension system (twice the size of GDP). The 2019 edition of Pension Markets in Focus, coming out in October, will cover these issues further.

Poor financial results of pension funds in 2018 probably result from the downturn on equity markets in the last quarter of 2018. Some of the major stocks indices fell sharply in 2018 compared to 2017, suffering sometimes one of the worst declines since the 2008 financial crisis. This negative performance on equity markets contributed to the decline of pension fund assets in 2018 when these losses were not compensated by increases in contributions of plan members.

Full report

© OECD