Financial Services, Funds, Investments, Latvia, Pensioners

Contributions made by pension plan participants in 2017 grew by 8.9% against 2016 and totaled EUR 67.408 million, while contributions made by employers rose 4.8% year-on-year to EUR 10.056 million.

FCMC spokeswoman Agnese Licite told LETA that last year contributions to the private pension plans reached another record-high as people’s interest in saving for pensions remained strong and the number of pension plan participants continued to grow.

At the end of last year, the assets accumulated by the private pension funds were worth EUR 434.483 million, having grown 14.1% over the year.

In 2017, the private pension funds paid out EUR 35.191 million in private pensions, up 14.3% against 2016.

The number of private pension plan participants grew by 14,300 people last year or 5.3% to 286,507 at the end of 2017, which is 29.2% of Latvia’s economically active population.

The average yield of the pension plans was 3.1% in 2017, ranging from 7.5% to 8.6 for some of the plans. The annual yield of two USD-denominated pension plans was negative.

At the end of 2017, there were six private pension funds operating in Latvia, including five open funds and one closed fund offering 18 pension plans.