In the third quarter of 2023, Dutch pension funds saw their funding ratios improve relative to the second quarter, as the decline in the value of their investments was less pronounced than the decline in the value of liabilities. Total investments decreased by €63 billion to €1,422 billion, while aggregate liabilities decreased by €103 billion to €1,155 billion.
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The Dutch pension sector’s average funding ratio came to 123.2%. This represents a 5.0 percentage point increase from the previous quarter (see Figure 1). It is nevertheless below the figure for a year ago, which was 124.6%. Indexations granted over the past year have had an unfavourable impact on funding ratios, whereas the rise in interest rates has had a favourable impact.
The policy funding ratio came to 119.0%. This represents a 0.4 percentage point decrease from the previous quarter. The policy funding ratio is the average of the funding ratios for the past twelve months. It fell because the funding ratios in the third quarter of 2023 were lower than those in the corresponding quarter of 2022.
We used the following statistics to compile this news release:
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