The market value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension funds grew 0.6 per cent between the first and second quarters of 2018, according to data from Statistics Canada.
Investments in real estate saw the largest increase in the second quarter, up 2.5 per cent to $186.7 billion, and investments in mortgages saw the largest decline, down 13.9 per cent to $24.6 billion. Bond holdings grew by 1.5 per cent to $610.5 billion and stock holdings were down 0.4 per cent to $574.9 billion.
Read: Pension funds with hefty real estate allocations on the rise: survey
The data also showed the revenue of trusteed pension funds increased by 1.7 per cent to $43.1 billion and net income was down by 5.4 per cent to $19.1 billion.
Another report by Statistics Canada found pension wealth grew 6.8 per cent in nominal terms in 2017, to approximately $3.8 trillion by the end of the year. It attributed the growth to an increase in pension contributions and strong foreign equity markets.
Private pension assets accounted for 89.3 per cent of the total pension wealth at the end of 2017. This included the combined assets of employer-based pensions and individual registered savings plans.
The value of employer-based pension plans rose 5.6 per cent to about $2.2 trillion by the end of the year, a larger increase compared to 2016.
Read: Assets in trusteed pension funds down slightly in third quarter of 2017: Statistics Canada
Pension plans’ investment income was up 2.2 per cent in 2017, after increasing 4.8 per cent in 2016. Statistics Canada noted this was in part due to lower growth in interest income in 2017.
Revaluations, or the change in wealth due to changes in asset prices, and other changes added $132.9 billion to pension wealth in 2017, up from $18 billion in 2016. Trusteed pension plans posted revaluations and other changes of $44.3 billion in 2017, up from $1.2 billion in 2016.
This story originally appeared on Benefits Canada‘s companion website, the Canadian Investment Review.