According to this OECD publication, preliminary data for 2020 show that pension funds had more than USD 35 billion in assets under management worldwide at the end of 2020, exceeding 2019 levels, despite the complications caused by COVID-19. Pension fund assets grew by 8.7% in the OECD area, amounting to USD 34.2 billion at the end of 2020. Outside the OECD area, pension fund assets in a group of 31 jurisdictions amounted to USD 777,291 million at the end of 2020, 1.2% more than those existing at the end of 2019.

Pension funds had overall positive investment returns in most reporting jurisdictions in 2020, despite the sharp decline in equity prices in major financial markets in the first quarter of 2020, rising unemployment, and the contraction of GDP. Pension funds in Hong Kong, China and Mexico had the highest annual real returns on investments in 2020, at 12.4% and 9.3% respectively. Pension funds also posted a real investment return rate of more than 5% in 17 other jurisdictions, including Denmark (7.5%), the Netherlands (6.5%) and the United States (5.9%). The performance of pension fund investments was lower, but still positive, in 23 other jurisdictions.

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