Pension funds get active

Source: Xinhua | 2018-07-24

LOCAL governments in China have entrusted more pension funds to invest their money as the country faces the challenge of an aging population, a government official said yesterday.

By the end of June, 14 provincial-level regions including Beijing and Shanghai had signed contracts to entrust a total of 585 billion yuan (US$87 billion) in pension funds to the National Council for Social Security Fund, said Lu Aihong, spokesperson with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Of the total, 371.65 billion yuan is already in place and has been invested.

The ministry will continue to encourage more regions to invest pension funds and at the same time strengthen risk management to secure long-term and stable investment return.

Between January and June this year, revenue of China’s pension, unemployment and occupational injury insurance funds totaled 2.65 trillion yuan, up 19 percent year on year, while the total expenses stood at 2.15 trillion yuan, up 18 percent.

As a significant part of the pension reform, pension fund investment aims to tackle the challenge of an aging society.