Even before the Government introduced its hardship early superannuation release regime, superannuation assets were in decline in Australia, according to the latest data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
The regulator’s March quarter data, released today, revealed that superannuation assets totalled $2.7 trillion at the end of the March and that over the 12 months from March 2019 there was a 0.3% reduction in total superannuation assets.
“Total assets in MySuper products were $710 billion at the end of the March 2020 quarter. Over the 12 months from March 2020 there was a decrease of 0.4% in total assets in MySuper products,” it said.
“The reduction in the value of superannuation assets during the March 2020 quarter was due to a significant downturn in global financial markets as a result of COVID-19.”
“The annual industry-wide rate of return (ROR) for entities with more than four members for the March 2020 quarter was -10.3% and for the year was -3.3%,” it said.
“The March 2020 quarter was the lowest quarterly ROR recorded by APRA since data collection began 15 years ago. The five year average annualised ROR to March 2020 was 3.7%.”
