A recent survey suggests increasing pension liabilities have offset asset gains making the Eurozone the worst performing of all major retirement markets across the globe in the first quarter of 2005.
The report, Towers Perrin Global Capital Market Update: First Quarter 2005, examined how market changes have influenced defined pension plans in major markets.
The Eurozone saw a .18 percent drop in overall funding of its benchmark plan, compounding the region’s already tumbling levels, now down 5.5 percent in the past 12 months. The decline bucks the global trend in which most markets are seeing improvements in funding levels of defined benefit pension plans.
The report states that Projected Benefit Obligation funded ratios rose in Brazil, Japan and the United Kingdom. Pension plans in Canada and the United States fell because of weak currencies and poor asset returns, but still performed much better than the Eurozone that has endured harsh declines in the past 12 months and since January 2000.