The market value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension funds decreased 2.9 per cent to $2.21 trillion in the first quarter of 2022, down from $2.27 trillion in the previous quarter, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Within trusteed plans, public sector assets decreased 1.8 per cent to $1.48 trillion, accounting for 79 per cent of overall assets, while private sector assets fell 6.7 per cent to $464.8 billion.
Total revenue decreased to $52.8 billion, mainly because of the drop in non-contributions, which fell by $25.2 billion. Net income also fell by 53.2 per cent to $26.4 billion from $56.5 billion. Expenditures increased 8.6 per cent, with other disbursements and losses up $3.3 billion and pension payments out of funds down $1.3 billion.
Read: Trusteed pension funds’ assets valued at $2.27TN in Q4: Stats Can
The total value of domestic holdings fell 1.9 per cent in the first quarter and while bonds lost $35 billion, the decrease was partially offset by increases in short-term investments, which rose $10.2 billion.
Similarly, foreign assets fell 5.6 per cent for the quarter, with equities and bonds decreasing by 9.4 per cent and 7.7 per cent, respectively. These losses were offset by increases in short-term investments (22.8 per cent), real estate (6.3 per cent) and infrastructure (3.9 per cent).
Assets of nationality unknown accounted for 11.5 per cent of all assets, up from 10.6 per cent in the previous quarter.
Read: Trusteed pension funds’ assets valued at $2.18T in Q3: StatsCan