The net income of state-run Government Service Insurance System jumped 69 percent to P94.7 billion in 2017 as the pension fund’s earnings from its financial assets almost doubled due to a robust stock market.
In a statement, the GSIS said its bottom line last year climbed from P56.1 billion in 2016, citing its latest audited financial statement.
Income from financial assets increased to P59.1 billion from P30.2 billion in 2016, which the GSIS attributed to “gains on valuation of traded stocks for 2017 which reached P37.3 billion, reversing the loss of P516.2 million the prior year.”
The GSIS said the stock market had a “stellar year” in 2017, as the Philippine Stock Exchange index hit a record-high of 8,558.4 points.
Also on the revenue side, income from insurance coming from contributions grew by about a tenth to P107.2 billion, as members reached over 1.7 million as of end-2017.
Revenue from loans rose by 5 percent to P24.6 billion.
As for expenditures, social insurance claims and benefits rose 8 percent to P94 billion last year from P87.1 billion in 2016.
The higher payouts came on the back of a bigger number of old-age pensioners (309,308 with an average monthly pension of P11,863.86 last year from 298,456 with an average monthly pension of P11,445.75 in 2016); expanded number of survivorship claimants (130,766 pensioners with an average monthly pension of P3,491.10 in 2017 from 2016’s 128,497 pensioners with an average monthly pension of P3,393.33); as well as processing of more life insurance claims for 92,055 members in 2017 from 77,827 members in 2016, and retirement claims for 37,871 retirees in 2017 from 36,792 in 2016.
Total assets grew 9 percent to P1.1 trillion.
“We are also diversifying our investments to improve the returns of our portfolio. It is never good to put all our eggs in one basket,” Aranas added. —BEN O. DE VERA