April 2020

21Apr

US Public Pension Funding Levels Plunge to 66% in Q1

The funded level of the 100 largest US public defined benefit pension plans plunged to 66% during the first quarter from 74.9% at the end of last year, according to Milliman. It was the largest quarterly drop in the history of the firm’s public pension funding index (PPFI), and it eliminated the funding level improvements made during 2019. Volatility from the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in net negative cash flow of approximately $24 billion and a $419 billion loss in...

April 21, 2020
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21Apr

Debt headache compounds Kenya’s worries amid fears for economy

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to be felt in July when the country will need Sh630 billion to settle debts that will fall due. Kenya’s total debt reached a new high of Sh6.3 trillion on March 20. This position has been made worse by the depreciation of the shilling, which has reached an average of Sh106.7 to the dollar, one of the lowest this month. The debt position will get worse in coming months as...

April 21, 2020
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20Apr

US. We Need a New Social Contract for the Coronavirus

Our collective behavior will be the primary determinant of whether we can keep this virus in check. A team of infectious disease epidemiologists has calculated that we must reduce our social contacts by 65 percent from what they were before the virus started spreading. Everyone wants to get the country back to work, school, and together again as soon as possible. On Friday, the Trump administration announced it wants to do that in phases and allow each governor...

April 20, 2020
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20Apr

5 benefits this Singaporean system has over other pension systems

If you’ve wondered how CPF measures up with other countries’ pension systems. The CPF, or Central Provident Fund, is a social security scheme funded by contributions from both employers and employees. Read also India. No deduction in pension amid COVID-19 outbreak: Union Government It helps Singaporeans set aside savings for retirement, as well as for other important things like housing and healthcare. Read also IMF warns of global social unrest amid coronavirus pandemic What sets the CPF apart from other pension systems? Here...

April 20, 2020
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20Apr

Ireland. Concern growing as social welfare budget nears breaking point

Concern is growing across Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the capacity of the Department of Social Protection to continue to fund the cost of the coronavirus shutdown without an emergency estimate. The scale of the fiscal challenges are so steep one senior Government source warned: ‘The cost of dealing with coronavirus and its impact, especially on the Social Protection budget, may compel Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to escalate the process of government formation.’ Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are...

April 20, 2020
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20Apr

India. No deduction in pension amid COVID-19 outbreak: Union Government

The Union government in its latest order has said that there will be no deductions in pension. The government clarified that it is not planning anything of this sort. As per the latest reports, India has witnessed more than 15000 cases and 507 deaths due to the deadly coronavirus. Meanwhile, 2231 COVID-19 patients have recovered. The entire nation is under lockdown till May 3 to combat the deadly coronavirus. Read More @News.abplive

April 20, 2020
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17Apr

Income and Wealth Shocks and Expectations during the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Tobin Hanspal, Annika Weber, Johannes Wohlfart In early April 2020 we conducted a survey on a representative sample of more than 8,000 US households to study the effect of the coronavirus crisis on household income and retirement wealth, households' expectations about the recovery, and the impact of the shock on individuals' economic choices. Wealth shocks are large across the population, but more pronounced for middle-age households and those higher in the wealth and income distributions. This contrasts with...

April 17, 2020
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17Apr

IMF warns of global social unrest amid coronavirus pandemic

The International Monetary Fund warned the economic havoc caused by the coronavirus pandemic could spark further social unrest around the globe and urged governments to take steps to prevent the disturbances, according to a report. Read also Milliman analysis: Public pensions hammered by COVID-19 economic volatility, shedding $419 billion in market value in Q1 The organization cautioned that “some countries remain vulnerable to new protests, particularly if policy actions to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis are perceived as insufficient or as...

April 17, 2020
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17Apr

Milliman analysis: Public pensions hammered by COVID-19 economic volatility, shedding $419 billion in market value in Q1

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the first quarter 2020 results of its Public Pension Funding Index (PPFI), which consists of the nation's 100 largest public defined benefit pension plans. During Q1 2020, the overall funded ratio for these plans suffered the single largest quarterly drop in the history of the PPFI, decreasing from 74.9% to 66.0% between Jan 1 and March 31. Economic volatility from the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a $419 billion...

April 17, 2020
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17Apr

Public pension funds shouldn’t wait for a return to ‘normal’

By Anthony Randazzo The past few weeks have seen America’s leaders wrestle with the human costs of inaction in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in the next few months, state and local leaders will have to step up again and act decisively to avoid the financial effects of this pandemic from creating long-term damage to their public sector retirement systems. Unlike the demographics most vulnerable to succumbing to the physical effects of the virus, those with the biggest cause...

April 17, 2020
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