The net assets of the Bulgarian private pension funds surged 7.4% QoQ and 19.3% YoY in Q4’23 to reach BGN 22.9bn, according to data released by the Financial Supervision Commission. Q4 growth came mostly from the positive returns on investments while the contributions for the quarter amounted to BGN 668m. The total number of insured individuals in all 4 types of pension funds surpassed 5m at end-2023, +0.5% QoQ and +1.6% YoY. The investments at the end of the period amounted to BGN 21.5bn, increasing by BGN 1.2bn over the quarter while the uninvested cash added BGN 281m to BGN 1.3bn or 5.6% of the net assets. The government bonds remained the most preferable asset class as they increased by BGN 682m and reached BGN 12.4bn or 54.1% of the net assets. Corporate bonds grew by BGN 157m to 7.7% of net assets. Equity investments were also up by BGN 322m in the quarter to BGN 6.7bn and accounted for 29.2% of the net assets. 2023 total revenue of the pension insurance companies added 3.1% on annual basis while profitability improved significantly with net income up 44.5% YoY to BGN 99.2m. The annual weighted-average nominal rate of return for the last 24 months period as of end-2023 was -1.62% for UPF (-3.36% as of end-Sept), -0.92% for PPF (-2.49% as of end-Sept) and -0.50% for VPF (-1.75% as of end-Sept).