Austrian pension funds achieved an average investment return of 1.87 per cent in the third quarter of 2024, according to the Austrian Control Bank.

These figures meant that Austrian pension funds returned 5.92 per cent on their investments over the first nine months of the year.

A report from the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) revealed that, over the past 10 years, Austrian pension funds returned an average of 3.17 per cent a year.

It also showed that the assets under management of the eight Austrian pension providers rose by 1.96 per cent in Q3 2024 to a record €28.14bn.

There are eight pension providers active in Austria, five of which are inter-company and three are company-based providers.

The number of people entitled to entitlement and benefits has risen since Q2 by 5,775 people to 1,087,289 who were registered in the pension fund system at the end of September.

This is almost a quarter (23 per cent) of all employed people in Austria.

Around 96 per cent of pension funds' assets were held indirectly through investment funds.

The largest investment classes were equities at around 39 per cent; approximately 35 per cent were invested in bonds, around 12 per cent were in ‘other’ assets, and 5.8 per cent were in real estate.

---