Japan’s GPIF Shows Small Gain, Recovering from Prior Losses

The world’s largest pension fund’s assets grew by another $2.4 billion in the quarter ending June 30, its second straight quarterly gain, regaining some of its losses from the end of 2018.

Japan’s Government Pension Global on Friday announced 0.16% returns for the recent period, getting most of its gains from foreign stocks, which returned a mere 1.29%. The $1.4 trillion fund also saw overseas debt return 0.94% and domestic bonds

The 0.16% gain was paltry, compared to the prior-year period’s 1.68%. Japanese stocks suffered the most, losing 2.31% due to concerns of poor earnings reports for the island nation’s businesses and a potential sales tax increase in October, according to Bloomberg. Foreign assets helped the plan recoup some of the 14.8 trillion yen lost in 2018’s final quarter.

The pension program noted plans to buy overseas bonds to hedge against the yen for the first time. During the recent quarter, the yen rose 2.8% against the dollar and 1.4% against the euro.

The fund’s asset allocation was 26.9% domestic bonds, 26.4% foreign stocks, 23.5% domestic stocks, 18.1% foreign bonds, and 5.1% short-term assets.

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