The Bureau of Labor Funds yesterday reported record high monthly gains for January from funds that it manages, citing booming global financial markets.
The funds’ accumulated gains, which reflect overall increases in the value of assets and investments, totaled NT$394.7 billion (US$12.56 billion) in January, smashing the previous record of NT$300.6 billion in October last year, bureau data showed.
The January gains translated into a rate of return of 5.28 percent, the data showed.
Photo: Reuters
Bureau of Labor Funds Deputy Director Liu Li-ju (劉麗茹) said the gains were driven by a surge in global financial markets, but she expected a smaller return on the labor funds last month, as markets are unlikely to sustain all of their January gains.
The TAIEX in January soared 10.70 percent, the MSCI World Index rose 2.96 percent and the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index gained 0.94 percent.
The bureau said that 57.04 percent of its investments were made overseas in January, while the remaining 42.96 percent were investments in the domestic market.
As of the end of January, the combined value of the funds managed by the bureau — the Labor Pension Fund, the Labor Retirement Fund, the Labor Insurance Fund, the Employment Insurance Fund and the Arrear Wage Payment Fund — was NT$7.98 trillion, the data showed.
The value of assets in the Labor Pension Fund, launched in 2015, totaled NT$5.26 trillion as of the end of January, the highest of all, and its rate of return for January stood at 5.03 percent, the bureau said.
The Labor Retirement Fund, launched in 1984, had about NT$1.07 trillion of assets as of the end of January, with a rate of return of 8.08 percent for the month, it said.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Public Service Pension Fund yesterday said that its fund recorded NT$61.48 billion in gains in January, equal to a rate of return of 5.11 percent.
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