Private pension funds have gained over 20% in the past year

Mandatory private pension funds (pillar II) and voluntary ones (pillar III) have in the past year registered an average yield of over 20%, way above the 4.5% inflation rate of the same period. Thus, mandatory pension funds had yields ranging between 10.3% and 23.5% during February 2009-February 2010 period, according to the data provided by the Association for Privately Managed Pensions of Romania (APAPR). At the same time, voluntary pension funds gained between 9.7% and 31.3%. Pension managers mainly invest in government bonds, but also in corporate bonds and listed stock. Of the ten funds operating on the mandatory pensions market, the top three in terms of their past year yield are ING (23.5%), Generali (23.3%) and Alico (20.6%). As regards voluntary pension funds, the highest yields were registered by AZT Vivace (31.3%), Asirom Concordia (27.7%) and ING Optim (26.7%).