Why having so much pension money became a headache for Iceland

This is one of those first world problems that we would like to have in Latin American countries: “I don’t know what to do with so much money.”

Although it is a cartoon, the truth is that Iceland’s pension system, which has been listed as one of the most successful in the world, has such a gigantic amount of resources that there is now a debate in the country about what is the best way to invest those funds.

With assets reaching almost twice the size of the North Atlantic island economy, the government led by environmentalist and ecologist Katrín Jakobsdóttir is exploring the idea of ​​allowing companies that manage Icelanders’ funds to do more investments abroad.

Currently, the rules limit these investments of the funds abroad to 50%.

“The system has gotten too big”Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson declared in an interview with the local press in December.

“It goes without saying that we cannot limit all investment opportunities to the domestic market,” he said.

Read more @The Saxon

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