Returns Rise for China’s Basic Pension Insurance Funds

What’s new: China’s basic pension insurance funds entrusted for investment achieved an annual return of 10.95% (link in Chinese) last year, the highest since 2016, according to data released Tuesday by the National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF).

The return was higher than 9.03% for 2019. According to the NCSSF, the average annual return was 6.89% from 2017 to 2020.

The context: Under the State Council’s 2015 regulations, provincial-level regions in late 2016 began to entrust part of their basic pension insurance funds to the NCSSF for investment.

The NCSSF runs a national social security reserve fund that is dedicated to supplementing social security expenditures such as pensions in an era of population aging. Last year, the reserve fund saw a 15.84% return on investment (link in Chinese), the highest in 11 years.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Lin Jinbing (jinbinglin@caixin.com)

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