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Fund’s investment drops $33 million
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Posted on Jul 10 2000
The Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund’s off-island investment reported a net loss of $33,424,334 for the months of April and May this year due to the volatile performance of its investments in stock markets.
However, the portfolio return for the current fiscal year (October 1999 to May 2000) still jumped 11.38 percent or a total of $37,925,409. This brings to $371 million the total investment of the Fund for FY 2000.
Breakdown of decline in Fund’s investment: $17 million in April and $16 million in May.
Some of the board directors expressed concern on the continuous decline in the Fund’s investment in Asia during Friday’s board meeting. However, Board Chair Vicente Camacho allayed fears of the board directors saying the drop in value of the Fund’s portfolio is expected in any investment and does not in any way reflect the inefficiency of its money managers.
The wild swings in the stock market in Asia brought down the value of the Fund’s $10 million investment in the region to $9.8 million for the current fiscal year.
The Fund is still hoping to get a bigger payment from the government’s unpaid contribution which amounts to $32 million. In terms of equity allocation, more than 90 percent of the Fund’s money is invested in the U.S. mainland while only four percent is in Asia.
As the Asian economy remains unstable, NMI Retirement Fund Administrator Juan S. Torres maintains that the amount of money invested in the region should no longer be increased.
The Fund is still keeping a close watch at its cash balance as it needs $3 million every month to manage the contributions of the 5,000-strong government work force.
