In the first quarter of 2023, Dutch pension funds saw their funding ratios improve relative to the previous quarter, as growth in their investments outstripped the increase in liabilities. Total investments went up by €30 billion to €1,469 billion, while aggregate liabilities rose by €19 billion to €1,262 billion.
The Dutch pension sector’s average funding ratio came to 116.5%. This represents a 0.6 percentage point increase from the previous quarter (see Figure 1). It is nevertheless below the figure for a year ago, which was 118.8%. This change is largely attributable to the indexation granted in 2022. The funding ratio reflects a pension fund’s current financial position, expressing the ratio between investments and liabilities.
The policy funding ratio came to 120.8% as at 31 March 2023. This represents a 0.6 percentage point increase from 31 December 2022. 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 2023 were higher than those in the corresponding quarter of 2022.
We used the following statistics to compile this news release:
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