Euro area pension fund statistics: third quarter of 2022

14 December 2022

• Total assets of euro area pension funds amounted to €2,968 billion in third quarter of 2022, €68 billion lower than in second quarter of 2022
• Total pension entitlements of euro area pension funds dropped to €2,290 billion in third quarter of 2022, down €98 billion from second quarter of 2022

Total assets of euro area pension funds decreased to €2,968 billion in the third quarter of 2022, from €3,036 billion in the second quarter of 2022. Investment fund shares accounted for 44.8% of the pension funds sector's total assets in the third quarter of 2022. The second largest category of holdings was debt securities (25.8%), followed by equity (9.0%) (see respective transactions in Chart 1).

Holdings of investment fund shares decreased to €1,329 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2022 from €1,389 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of investment fund shares amounted to €44 billion in the third quarter of 2022, while price and other changes amounted to -€16 billion. Looking at the main type of investment fund shares, equity fund shares totalled €386 billion, with net sales of €18 billion.

Turning to pension funds' holdings of debt securities, these decreased to €765 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2022 from €773 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of debt securities amounted to €21 billion in the third quarter of 2022, while price and other changes amounted to -€30 billion. Looking at equity on the assets side, euro area pension funds' holdings decreased to €268 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2022, from €286 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of equity stood at €11 billion in the third quarter of 2022, while price and other changes stood at -€8 billion.

Chart 1

Transactions in main assets of euro area pension funds in the third quarter of 2022

(quarterly transactions in EUR billions; not seasonally adjusted)

In terms of the main liabilities, total pension entitlements of pension funds amounted to €2,290 billion in the third quarter of 2022, down from €2,388 billion in the second quarter of 2022. Defined benefit pension schemes amounted to €1,786 billion, accounting for 78.0% of total pension entitlements. Defined contribution pension schemes totalled €503 billion, accounting for 22.0% of total pension entitlements in the third quarter of 2022. Net purchases of defined benefit schemes amounted to €2 billion in the third quarter of 2022, while those of defined contribution schemes came to €3 billion. Price and other changes of total pension entitlements amounted to -€104 billion.

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Notes:

• "Defined benefit schemes" includes hybrid schemes.
• "Investment funds" includes money market funds and non-money market funds.
• Hyperlinks in the main body of the statistical release and in the annex table lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions. Figures shown in the annex table are a snapshot of the data as at the time of the current release.