The growth of the net assets of the Bulgarian private pension funds slowed down to 2.6% QoQ (+BGN 0.6bn) and 16.6% YoY (+BGN 3.5bn) in Q2’24 to reach BGN 24.6bn at the end of June, according to data released by the Financial Supervision Commission. Q2 growth came from both the contributions during the quarter (BGN 734m) and the improving rates of return. The total number of insured individuals in all 4 types of pension funds was slightly above 5m at end-June, +0.2% QoQ and +1.4% YoY. The investments at the end of the period amounted to BGN 23.5bn, increasing by BGN 1.1bn over the quarter while the uninvested cash declined BGN 468m to BGN 1bn or 4% of the net assets. The government bonds increased by BGN 712m and reached BGN 13.7bn or 55.6% of the net assets. Corporate bonds added BGN 96m to 7.8% of net assets. Equity investments were up by BGN 316m in the quarter to BGN 7.4bn and accounted for 30% of the net assets. H1 total revenue of the pension insurance companies grew 11.7% on annual basis while EBT rose 19.7% YoY to BGN 68.5m. The annual weighted-average nominal rate of return for the last 24 months period improved as of end-June to 4.85% for UPF (1.26% as of end-March), 4.74% for PPF (1.49% as of end- March) and 5.50% for VPF (2.01% as of end- March).