09.06

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) today released its December 2008 Quarterly Superannuation Performance publication, which shows total assets fell over the quarter by $87.2 billion, or 7.6 per cent, to a total of $1.05 trillion.

The publication shows that over the December quarter, industry funds’ assets fell by 8.0 per cent ($15.8 billion) to $181.1 billion. Public sector funds’ assets fell by 9.3 per cent ($15.2 billion) to $149.4 billion, corporate funds’ assets fell by 10.3 per cent ($6.2 billion) to $53.6 billion and retail funds’ assets fell by 10.7 per cent ($35.8 billion) to $297.1 billion over the quarter.

Contributions to funds with at least $50 million in assets over the December quarter were $19.0 billion, with employers contributing $15.3 billion and members contributing $3.3 billion. Other contributions, including spouse contributions and government co-contributions, totalled $494 million.

Retail funds received 34.3 per cent ($6.5 billion) of total contributions during the December quarter, while industry funds received 30.1 per cent ($5.7 billion), public sector funds 28.6 per cent ($5.4 billion) and corporate funds 7.0 per cent ($1.3 billion).

The combined return on assets was -10.3 per cent for the December 2008 quarter. The return for industry funds was -8.8 per cent, public sector funds was -9.5 per cent, corporate funds -10.8 per cent and retail funds -11.5 per cent.

Refer to the December 2008 Quarterly Superannuation Performance publication.