Funds managed by the Ministry of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Funds posted solid year-to-date returns in the first seven months, after recording NT$148 billion (US$48.36 billion) in gains in July as global financial markets stabilized, the bureau said yesterday.
In a statement, the bureau said the accumulated gains in the value of assets in the funds’ portfolios and income on investment, totaled NT$64.4 billion during the January-to-July period, compared with NT$83.6 billion in aggregate losses from January to June, reversing a loss in the first half of the year.
The strong showing in July, which helped to bolster the performances of the funds, came after the US reached agreements with its trading partners during their tariff talks and announced the levies to become effective in last month, bureau Deputy Director-General Liu Li-ju (劉麗茹) told a news conference.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
Liu said global stock markets were led by tech giants to move higher, while a stronger Taiwan dollar against the US dollar resulted in foreign-exchange losses for the funds when their returns were converted into the local currency, reducing their gains.
In the seven-month period, the TAIEX, the benchmark weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), rose 2.2 percent, with the average 10-year local treasury yield at 1.54 percent, while the MSCI World Index soared 11.54 percent.
During the same period, the New Taiwan dollar rose 8.82 percent against the US dollar.
According to the bureau, 57.21 percent of investments made by the labor funds were made overseas and the remaining 42.79 percent invested domestically.
The combined value of the funds managed by the bureau, including the Labor Pension Fund, the Labor Retirement Fund, the Labor Insurance Fund, the Employment Insurance Fund and the Arrear Wage Payment Fund, totaled NT$7.1 trillion as of the end of July.
Based on that value, the NT$64.4 billion gains represent a rate of return of 0.94 percent in the first seven months of this year, the bureau said.
The value of assets in the new Labor Pension Fund, launched in 2015, totaled NT$4.66 trillion at the end of July, the highest of any fund, and its rate of return this year to the end of July stood at 0.61 percent, the bureau said.
The Labor Retirement Fund, which has been in place since 1984, had about NT$1.03 trillion in assets as of the end of July, with a rate of return of 3.29 percent, the bureau added.
As global stock markets continued to steam ahead and the Taiwan dollar stabilized against the US dollar last month, these labor funds are expected to continue to report returns in the month, boosting the accumulated gains further, Lin said.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Public Service Pension Fund said yesterday that the Public Service Pension Fund managed by the bureau recorded NT$11.54 billion in gains in the first seven months of this year, representing a rate of return of 1.15 percent.
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