Dutch pension funds’ financial position improved
In the first quarter of 2022, Dutch pension funds saw their financial position improve for the eighth consecutive quarter, as the value of their liabilities showed a steeper decline than their assets. Higher interest rates in financial markets caused aggregate pension liabilities to fall €151 billion to €1,437 billion, outstripping the €108 billion decline in pension assets to EUR 1,707 billion.
Average funding ratio of Dutch pension funds stood at 118.8%
The Dutch pension sector’s average funding ratio came to 118.8% as at 31 March 2022. This represents a 4.5 percentage point increase from 31 December 2021 (see Figure 1). It is now well above the figure for a year ago, which was 106.4%. The funding ratio reflects a pension fund’s current financial position, expressing the ratio between available assets and liabilities.
The policy funding ratio came to 111.0% as at 31 March 2022. This represents a 2.9 percentage point increase from 31 December 2021. The policy funding ratio is the average of the funding ratios for the past twelve months. It increased because the funding ratios in the first quarter of 2022 were higher than those in the corresponding quarter of 2021.
Further information
We used the following statistics to compile this news release: