The market value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension funds rose 1.8 per cent to $2.18 trillion in the third quarter of 2021, up from $2.14 trillion in the previous quarter, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Within trusteed plans, public sector assets grew two per cent to $1.7 trillion, accounting for 77.6 per cent of overall assets, while private sector assets rose 1.1 per cent to $489.6 billion.
Read: Trusteed pension funds’ assets valued at $2.14T in Q2: StatsCan
Total revenue fell 16.4 per cent to $60.1 billion, largely due to an $11.1 billion decrease in net realized gains on the sale of securities. Meanwhile, expenditures rose 4.9 per cent to $29.7 billion, due mainly to an 8.8 per cent increase in pension payments and a 10.7 per cent increase in other disbursements and losses. These increases were partially offset by cash withdrawals (negative 26.8 per cent) and transfers to other pension plans (negative 24.7 per cent).
According to the report, the total value of domestic holdings rose by $14.2 billion in the third quarter, with Canadian bonds increasing by 2.2 per cent and Canadian equities rising by 1.7 per cent.
In addition, foreign assets rose 2.6 per cent to $1 trillion, with foreign bonds increasing by five per cent and foreign equities up 1.4 per cent. And assets of nationality unknown accounted for 10.2 per cent of all assets, down from 10.4 per cent in the previous quarter.
Read: Trusteed pension funds’ assets valued at $2.1T in Q1: StatsCan