Irish Life Investment Managers has said pension funds should deliver growth of around 9% in the first half of this year after solid growth in the financial markets.
In its Mid-Year Report Card and Outlook, it says low interest rates, low inflation and growing company profits mean the prospects for the rest of 2005 are good.
ILIM's head of asset allocation Eugene Kiernan said he saw greater potential in equities and commercial property rather than cash or bonds.
Also in the report, Kiernan said Irish equities had benefited from being positioned in one the world's fastest growing economies, adding that the banks, with underlying lending growth of more than 25%, were 'perhaps the purest play on this'.
He said ILIM was sticking to its long-held view that euro zone interest rates were going nowhere.
