Total institutional pension fund assets in 13 major markets increased to $23 trillion at the end of 2009, up 15% from $20 trillion a year earlier.
Pension investment experts at Towers Watson & Company, New York, have published those figures in a global pension assets study.
The 15% increase in major-market pension assets in 2009 compares with a 21% decrease in pension assets in those markets in 2008, the pension analysts report.
Pension assets in the markets studied now have returned to 2006 levels.
Global pension assets now amount to about 70% of average gross domestic product, up from 58% in 2008, but down from 76% in 1999.
Other Towers Watson findings:
- The United States accounts for 57% of total world pension fund assets. Japan ranks second, with 14% of pension fund assets.
- The 10-year U.S. pension fund average compound annual growth rate of 3% is low by major-market standards. Brazil ranks first, with an average pension asset CAGR of 18%, and Hong Kong ranks second, with an average pension asset CAGR of 14%. In the Netherlands, the average pension asset CAGR has been 12%.
- Dutch pension assets now equal 120% of gross domestic product, and that is the highest pension assets-to-GDP ratio among the markets Towers Watson studied.
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