Pension funds, 2008

New annual account regulations for pension funds adapted to IFRS were introduced in January 2008. New regulations for pension funds were introduced at the same time, and both changes have an impact on the content and presentation of the pension fund statistics. The statistics from 2008 cannot be compared with those from previous years. Pension funds had a NOK 4.7 billion deficit in 2008, compared with a NOK 5.5 billion surplus in 2007. The main reason for the deficit in 2008 was, as mentioned above, the weak performance in the securities market, which led to losses on financial assets of almost NOK 21 billion. Premium income also shows a decline, from NOK 19.1 billion in 2007 to NOK 16.7 billion in 2008; a decrease of about 14.4 per cent. The decrease in premium income is due to large transfers of premium reserves from other companies in 2007 compared to earlier years.

Total assets for pension funds decreased by NOK 7.5 billion in 2008 to NOK 162 billion, which is a decrease of 4.4 per cent compared to 2007. The stock of investments in subsidiaries and other shares, participation and primary capital certificates decreased by NOK 20 billion, and amounted to 32 per cent of the total assets. This is a 10 per cent decrease from 2007. The holding of bonds increased by NOK 12.3 billion in 2008, and amounted to 57 per cent of total assets.

Tables

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