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Jeff Green
THE value of the pension fund relied on by thousands of Merseyside employees has soared by more than a billion pounds as the stock market bounces back from recession.
The latest annual report from Merseyside Pension Fund shows the fund’s assets stood at £4.686bn on March 31 – up from £3.521bn a year earlier.
That rise of 33.1% was slightly above the fund’s benchmark of 33% and follows a tough 2008/9 when the fund was badly hit by the global recession and lost more than £800m in value. Local authority workers primarily pay into the fund, which is managed by Wirral Council.
At March 31, there were 50,776 members paying into the fund, and 40,935 pensioners and 28,848 people had frozen or deferred assets in the fund.
Its director of finance, Ian Coleman, said last night: “The financial year, ended March 31, 2010, witnessed a strong rebound in equity markets worldwide as leading economies staged a tentative recovery from the worst recession experienced since the Second World War.”
Mr Coleman added: “Equities outperformed bonds in an environment that favoured ‘riskier’ assets, namely a return to economic growth, exceptionally low interest rates across the globe and fiscal stimulus packages in the major advanced economies.
“UK bonds and alternative assets performed strongly over the period, although this was offset somewhat by underperformance in UK equities where active managers were unable to meet their benchmark targets.”
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