Japan’s state pension fund, the world’s largest, posted a fourth straight quarterly loss in its longest losing streak in two decades.
The Government Pension Investment Fund lost 1% during the quarter ended December, or ¥1.85 trillion ($14 billion), reducing its total assets to ¥189.9 trillion, the fund said in Tokyo on Friday. Its Japanese stock holdings rose 3.2% during the period and domestic debt lost 1.7%. The foreign equities portfolio was down 0.05%, while overseas bonds fell 5.3%.
Once a reliable source of support for the GPIF’s performance, the dollar had its biggest quarterly drop against the yen since 2008, dragging down the value of foreign assets that make up about half of the fund’s portfolio. Meanwhile, holdings of Japanese debt capped a fifth straight quarterly loss after the Bank of Japan abruptly revised its yield-curve-control policy in December.
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