The diverse investment portfolio of the National Superannuation Fund Limited (NASFUND) has been able to generate profits and a healthy crediting rate for members of the super fund.
NASFUND's Chief Investment Officer, David Brown, said the investment decisions by the fund a few years prior have resulted in pleasing outcomes despite external factors such as the slowdown of the global economy and limited access to foreign currency.
Brown said this following the announcement by Board Chairman, Hulala Tokome, and yesterday of a 7. 25 per cent crediting rate equating to over K265.5 million to be paid to NASFUND members.
“It speaks to the quality of investments and the quality of investment decisions made by the NASFUND Board in previous years that we have in place a very good quality portfolio of some very good real estate, some good investments in government securities, and a limited amount of off-shore investment which have been good for us, and a very big commitment to invest in Papua New Guinea economy through companies and real estate and producing companies that produce jobs for our people.
“So its great that those investment returns have really come through this year to provide a very attractive crediting rate,” he said.
Brown said they will be looking to expound on this strategy on the back of the economy which is projected to stabilise this year.
He said currently NASFND has been in a defensive position with the current economic climate.
“We do see some opportunity to continue not only ‘sticking to the knitting’ and being conservative but to open up our investment position to a slightly more expansionary starts as we go through 2017.
“So we feel we’ve seen the worst of the economic slow down right now but that s not any reason to relax yet,” said Brown.