Earnings on the state pension plan dropped 0.92 percent during the the first quarter of the fiscal year—April through June, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced today. The value of the Common Retirement Fund was $146.5 billion as of June 30.
“Like many investors, the New York State Common Retirement Fund has been weathering uncertainty in the financial markets since the end of our fiscal year in March,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “It continues to be among the strongest in the nation and our diversified investment strategy and long-term perspective to help manage these market conditions has resulted in positive returns the last three years.”
DiNapoli announced in May that the rate of return on the pension fund for the 2011-12 fiscal year was estimated at 5.96 percent. The estimated value of the fund was $150.3 billion at the time, the highest it had reached since the global recession hit in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
New York has the third-largest public pension fund in the country, DiNapoli said. It is one of the highest-funded in the country, according to the Pew Center on the States. More than 80 percent of the cost of benefits has been funded from investment returns in the last 20 years.
