Pension funds’ Q1 losses erased in Q2: StatsCan

Canadian pension funds recovered their initial pandemic-driven market losses by the end of the second quarter, Statistics Canada says.

In a new report, StatsCan said that the market value of assets held by Canadian pension funds rose by 3.2% in the second quarter to $2.08 trillion. Assets were also up 3.7% year over year.

“These gains brought the assets back to their pre-Covid levels in the fourth quarter of 2019,” the agency noted.

Overall, domestic assets increased by 2.6% in the quarter and foreign assets rose by 4.3%.

In terms of domestic assets, pooled assets gained 4.7%, bonds added 3.3% and stocks were up 2.4%. Only short-term investments and mortgage assets declined.

Foreign assets, pooled assets and stocks also registered gains in the second quarter, while foreign bonds decreased 5.6% and foreign short-term investments also slipped. Overall, foreign assets were down 1.2% year over year.

StatsCan also reported that private pension funds outperformed public sector funds, both in the second quarter and on an annual basis.

Assets held by private sector funds rose by 6.5% in the quarter and were up 4.8% year over year. Public sector funds only saw a 1.8% gain in Q2, and a 3.3% increase year over year.

Pension funds also recovered their $6.1-billion loss from the first quarter, recording net income of $7.7 billion in Q2, StatsCan said.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.