Pension funds lost €9.5bn on the stock market in the fourth quarter of 2007 on total assets of €205bn, reports the Dutch central bank (DNB) in its March bulletin.

However, the pension funds have enough liquidity to index pensions to the rate of inflation thanks to favourable stock market results in the years preceding 2007, says the DNB.
Last week a number of economists warned that pension funds find it difficult to keep pensions in line with inflation because of the current credit crisis which is hitting markets worldwide.