Dutch pension fund PGB returned -25.3 per cent on its investments in 2022 following a “turbulent year”, it’s final quarterly report of the year has revealed.

Its investments to hedge inflation risk returned -44.7 per cent, while its investments to achieve additional return, such as equities, saw overall losses of -10.1 per cent.

PGB’s policy funding ratio stood at 118.7 per cent at the end of December 2022, following a 1 percentage point increase in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, its current funding ratio ended that year at 113.2 per cent, after falling from 118.5 per cent in the third quarter.

“The war in Ukraine unfortunately has a lot of human suffering and has been going on for almost a year now,” said PGB chairman of the board, Jochem Dijckmeester.

“Closer to home, our participants noticed the effects of high inflation, with more expensive groceries and rising energy prices.”

As a pension fund, PGB saw a lot of unrest in the financial markets, Dijckmeester noted, and it was a bad year for its assets.

This was primarily attributed to the sharp rise in interest rates, which also resulted in the pension fund having to reserve less money for pension benefits.

“For the first time since the economic crisis of 2008, we were able to increase pensions twice in a short period of time,” Dijckmeester added.

“The total increase in 2022 amounted to 3 per cent. To better compensate for the persistent inflation, the board decided in December to adjust the indexation policy.

“This made it possible to increase all pensions by 7 per cent from 1 January 2023.”

PGB’s returns on its defined contribution schemes were negative across all age groups in 2022.

For members aged up to 49, the return was -15.2 per cent, while for those aged 50-55 it was -18.7 per cent, for those aged 56-61 it was -22.1 per cent, and for those aged 62 or older it was -25.6 per cent.

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