MADRID, 26 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Pension plans registered a drop in contributions in the first half of the year of 16%, with a difference of 185 million compared to the previous year due to the limitation on savings imposed on individual pension plans after the reduction of the contribution limit up to 1,500 euros.

This is highlighted by the data published this Tuesday by the employers’ association Inverco, which has stressed that this lost savings has not been transferred to employment plans.

The pension plans as a whole closed the first semester with a negative yield of 6% at one year due to the “persistent high volatility in the financial markets due to geopolitical and inflationary tensions and fears of a recession”, which caused corrections in the stock and bond markets.

The variable income category was the most penalized in this period, registering a decrease of 8.3%, followed by guaranteed and mixed fixed income, which left 7.2% and 6.6%, respectively .

The employers’ association explained in a statement that these poor returns recorded in the first half of the year caused a slight change in the weightings of equities compared to the first quarter of the year.

In this way, the better performance of the national stock markets compared to other geographies has caused an increase in the percentage of domestic variable income to 14.8% from 13.9% at the end of March, while the Foreign variable fell to 26.7% from 27.8% in March 2022.

The profitability of the rest of the terms remained positive: it was 0.9% at three years and 1.3% at five, while the longer term amounted to 3.1% at 26 years and up to 2, 7% at 25 years.

The volume of assets stood at 117,095 million euros, which represents a decrease of 6,573 million euros in the second quarter of the year and is equivalent to 5.3% less than at the end of March.

The accumulated contributions for the set of plans up to the second quarter of the year reached 1,493 million euros, while benefits have been 1,998 million, with which net benefits amounted to 505 million euros in the first half.

Participant accounts stood at 9,375,240 at the end of June, although the estimated number of participants is eight million, given that some have more than one plan.

The assets of the individual system (third pillar) closed June at 81,123 million, 5.8% less than in March, with 7,413,253 participants, at the same time that the employment system (second pillar) closed the semester at 35,166 million euros , 4.1% less than the previous quarter with 1,909,611 accounts.

The associated system ended the sixth month of the year at 805 million euros, which represents a decrease of 6.1% compared to March, with 52,376 accounts.