The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has suffered a quarterly loss as a depreciating dollar dragged down the value of its overseas securities and domestic assets slumped.
GPIF, one of the world’s largest state pension funds, lost ¥8.815 trillion ($61.1 billion), or 3.4%, in the January-March period, with assets totaling ¥249.8 trillion at the end of the quarter, it said in Tokyo on Friday. On an annual basis, the fund had a 0.7% return.
The quarterly loss came as the rumblings of a global trade war due to higher U.S. tariffs hurt equities and the outlook for interest-rate cuts dragged down the dollar against the yen. GPIF incurred losses on all four of its asset classes for the first time since July-September 2022.
"The January-March investment performance was mainly due to a sharp decline in foreign stocks,” GPIF President Kazuto Uchida said at a news conference after the announcement of the results. "We are considering increasing the ratio of active management.”
Overseas investments slumped 6% for stocks and 2% for bonds during the quarter. Japanese stocks dropped 3.5%, while domestic debt slid 2.2%.
During the quarter, the MSCI All-Country World Index of global stocks fell 1.7% and the S&P 500 dropped 4.6% as the Topix lost 4.5%.
Yields on 10-year Treasurys dropped more than 30 basis points, while benchmark Japanese bond yields climbed around 40 basis points.
The dollar fell 4.6% against the yen.
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