September 2024

Canada. PSP Investments’ green assets increased to $64.9BN in fiscal 2024: report

The Public Sector Pension Investment Board has $64.9 billion invested in green assets, compared to $48.9 billion in fiscal 2023, according to the investment organization’s latest sustainability report. It found in addition to green assets, PSP Investments has roughly $11.5 billion in transition assets, defined as investments that have committed to make a substantial contribution to the low-carbon transition through the establishment of public targets and disclosure. Among PSP Investments’ portfolio companies, reported Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions data...

UK. NHS retirees with six-figure pensions double in a year

The number of retired NHS workers receiving pensions paying £100,000 has more than doubled in a year. Nearly 2,000 former consultants and senior staff now have pensions paying six-figures – up from 890 last year and 698 in 2022. Britain’s public sector pension debt has swollen to nearly £5 trillion, which is the equivalent of £173,000 per household. The NHS retirement plan, which is the nation’s largest public sector pension scheme, paid £12bn to its retirees in the 2023-2024 tax year, official documents show. Most...

Positioning for change: Public pensions after the great moderation

By Institutional Investor Survey   Investors apparently predict 2023 will look much like 2022, as rising interest rates and market volatility also remained top of mind for decision-makers. They also forecasted another tough period for investment returns next year. Concerns over inflation and a potential economic downturn loomed large in our survey as asset allocation influences.1 The top three concerns for these decision-makers are the need to navigate high inflation, market volatility and rising interest rates. Get the report here

August 2024

India approves assured pension scheme for federal government employees

The Indian government approved on Saturday a pension scheme which will guarantee federal government employees 50% of their base salary as a pension, moving away from a current scheme where the payout is linked to market returns. The Modi government has been forced to reassess the current pension system, adopted after a significant fiscal reform in 2004, as some states switched back to the older, fiscally straining system of fully funding a guaranteed pension. The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) for India's...

Ghana. Government, CETAG reach agreement: strike resolution imminent

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has reached a tentative agreement with the government following successful negotiations on Monday (19 August). The meeting included representatives from MELRP, the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), the Principals of Colleges of Education (PRINCOF), and CETAG. During the talks, the government agreed to unfreeze CETAG members’ July salaries, provided the association calls off its two-month-long strike, which has disrupted...

July 2024

Easing Sri Lanka’s Fiscal Burden. Who Needs a State Pension?

The recent economic crisis has highlighted the need to address weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s economic policies forlong-term structural change. One significant issue is the financial burden of public sector pensions. The Public Services Pensions (PSP) is the largest pension scheme for permanent public sector employees in Sri Lanka. However, its non-contributory nature has become a critical burden on the country, wherein pension benefits are funded directly from government revenue, supported by general taxation. With around 700,000 public sector pensioners,this...

Pension Systems (Un) Sustainability and Fiscal Constraints: A Comparative Analysis

By Michael Wickens, Vito Polito & Burkhard Heer Using an overlapping generations model, two new indicators of public pension system sustainability are proposed: the pension space, which measures the capacity to pay for pension expenditures out of labour taxation, and the pension space exhaustion probability reflecting demographic uncertainties. These measures reveal that the pension spaces of advanced economies are strikingly different. Most nations have little scope to further finance pensions out of labour income  taxation over the next thirty years....

The Impacts of Raising the Public Pension Eligibility Age on the Lifestyles of Elderly People: Evidence from Japan

By Shinya Inukai With many countries facing rapid population aging, the sustainability of public pensions has become a pressing issue. I evaluate the impacts, including both employment and time allocation, of public pension reform on the lifestyles of the elderly. In Japan, all residents aged 20 or older are covered by the public pension, with eligibility determined mechanically based on age. I focus on the reform raising men's eligibility age from 60 to 61 in 2001 and estimate its impact...

June 2024

US. Public pension funding ratios roar back in May — Milliman

The overall estimated funding ratio of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans bounced back in May thanks to strong investment returns for the month, according to the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding index. The increase in the funding ratio to 79.4% as of May 31 from the estimate of 77.6% as of April 30 was primarily the result of positive market performance in May, almost completely reversing a weak April for investment returns. The estimated funding ratio at the...

Economic & Budgetary Projections for the EU Member States (2022-2070)

By Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs European Economy Institutional Papers are important reports analysing the economic situation and economic developments prepared by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, which serve to underpin economic policy-making by the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. Views expressed in unofficial documents do not necessarily represent the views of the European Commission. Get the report here