The value of retirement savings of 4.6 million Canadian workers with trusteed pension plans slipped in the second quarter of last year, ending seven consecutive quarters of gains, according to Statistics Canada.
The market value of assets was $819 billion, a decline of 2% from Q1. It was due to a weaker performance of Canadian stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange for the same period.
Still, fund values have increased over the previous three years—rising 54% since bottoming out at $532 billion in the first quarter of 2003.
Thirty-nine percent of pension fund assets were in stocks and equity funds at the end of the second quarter, 33% were in bonds and bond funds, 6% in real estate, 4% in short-term investments, 1% in mortgages, and 17% in other assets.
Domestic holdings accounting for 72% of total fund assets while the share of investments in foreign holdings increased to 28%, up from 24% in the same period of 2005.
Pension benefits paid to retires amounted to $7.4 billion, the third straight quarter in which benefit payments have surpassed $7 billion.
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