Source: CNN PH
Metro Manila — The Social Security System (SSS) earned P28.65 billion from its investments in 2015 — a return on investment (RoI) of 6.9%, well above the market benchmarks.
"SSS performance under present management has consistently outdone major investment benchmarks, and we continue to do our best amid the prevailing market conditions," SSS Executive Vice-President for Investments Sector Rizaldy Capulong said in a statement on May 5 (Thursday).
The performance of SSS' investment portfolio outpaces the growth of the economy, which ran at 5.8%, and inflation at 1.4%. It also beat market indicators like the 10-year Treasury bond (4%) and 364-day Treasury bill (2.1%) rates.
SSS invests the contributions made by its members so it can pay out the pension and benefits they claim later on.
The total investment portfolio is P426.66 billion. Where it is invested is set by the fund's Investment Oversight Committee and the Risk Management Committee. The SSS Charter, however, sets caps on how much of the portfolio can be put in a certain asset class.
Following its conservative nature, the bulk of SSS' investments are in government securities. Real estate — seen as a high-risk, high-reward investment — netted SSS the most returns in 2015, but it was limited to just 7% of the total portfolio.
In the last five years, SSS' annual RoI had averaged 9.1%, also beating market benchmarks.
But Capulong said, this was still not enough to fund the P2,000 increase in pension many were clamoring for earlier in the year.
In January, President Benigno C. Aquino III vetoed a bill asking to raise the monthly pensions SSS pays out to its members from P1,200-2,400 to P3,200-4,400.
"While SSS investments are performing well, even in spite of a down market, these cannot be expected to adequately fund substantial benefit increases such as the proposed P2,000 pension hike, which would require an extra payout of least P56 billion annually, nearly double our entire investment income for 2015," Capulong said.
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