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Funds valued at $869 billion compared to $951.7 billion the previous quarter.
Ottawa (17 March 2009) - Employer-sponsored Canadian pension funds plunged by more than $82 billion in the third quarter of 2008, a drop of 8.7%. It was the biggest decline in more than a decade, Statistics Canada reports.
At year end, Canadian funds were valued at $869 billion, down from $951.7 billion the previous quarter, and from a peak of $954.6 billion in 2007. The Toronto stock exchange composite index lost 9.3% of its value during the quarter. Stocks and equities accounted for 34.2% of pension assets during the quarter.
StatsCan says 21% of private sector workers are covered by defined benefit plans in which the risk of shortfall is borne by the employer rather than the worker. The level was 29% a decade earlier.
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