Pension fund investment performance figures for the month of March 2012 have been released today.
The Aon Hewitt Managed Index, an index of traditional managed pension funds increased by 0.9% in March. The Index has risen 7.5% since the start of 2012.
"Irish defined benefit pension schemes will have seen an improvement in their funding levels over Q1 as equity markets have rallied considerably since the start of the year", commented Deborah Reidy, senior investment consultant at Aon Hewitt.
However, with bond yields in core Euro zone countries, most notably Germany, remaining at record low levels liability values have remained high for schemes" added Ms Reidy.
Doubts about the strength of the global recovery and worries over the Euro zone debt crisis resurfaced in March.
Deteriorating economic indicators from Europe and China helped fuel these global concerns.
Indicators show that the Euro zone area is slipping into recession and there is a slowdown in economic growth in China. The economic slowdown evident as China revised its economic growth forecast downwards to 7.5% and Euro zone ministers increased its bailout fund to €700bn.
Core bond yields fell over March as they benefitted from safe haven status towards the end of the month as fears about the global economic recovery resurfaced.
Peripheral bond yields have been a tale of two stories with Spanish yields rising as the country struggled to get its finances in order while Portuguese and Italian yields have benefitted from the ECB's LTRO policy; however the effects of this began to wane towards the end of the quarter.
The full Multi Asset Fund Survey for March 2012 will be released tomorrow.
