Pension fund assets in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries have recovered to pre-crisis levels, though some countries are yet to recover from the 2008 losses, according to new statistics.

The OECD has published a new report showing that on average pension funds across member nations experienced a positive net return on investment of 2.7% in 2010.

Finland led the European OECD nations, with funds achieving 8.9% returns. Poland was the next best European performer, at 7.7%.

Overall, New Zealand was home to the best performing funds in the OECD, achieving 10.3% returns. Chile followed at 10%, while Canada recorded 8.5% returns.

However, the economic troubles of Portugal and Greece were reflected in the performance of the countries’ pension funds, which experienced average returns of -8.1% and -7.4%, respectively.

Until December 2010, pension funds in OECD countries had recovered US $3.0 trillion from the US $3.4 trillion in market value that they lost in 2008, the report said.

Countries yet to recover completely from the 2008 losses at the end of 2010 included Belgium, whose assets at the end of 2010 were 10% below the December 2007 level. Ireland (13%), Portugal (12%), and Spain (3%) were the other European nations yet to recover, while Japan (8%) and the United States (3%) were also yet to fully bounce back.

According to the report, bonds remain by far the dominant asset class among OECD nations, accounting for 50% of total assets on average.

However, countries like the United States, Australia, Finland and Chile showed significant portfolio allocations to equities, in the range of 40% to 50%. The report said that the weight of equities in portfolios increased substantially from 2009 to 2010 across Austria, Finland, Poland and the Netherlands, growing in the range 6 to 7 percentage points. Meanwhile, bond allocation fell by a similar amount.

Access the report here

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