Nearly half of MPF investments lose money in last five years, study shows
Consumer Council study shows nearly half of funds surveyed posted an average loss in each of last five years, with global financial crisis blamed
Nearly half of the Mandatory Provident Fund investments ended up in the red in the past five years and employees - far from building up a retirement nest egg - could lose up to 14 per cent of the money they contributed in that period.
The losses emerged in a study by the Consumer Council of 523 funds in 39 schemes from 15 MPF providers from July to last month.
Of the 341 funds that provided data, 159 - or 46 per cent - posted an average loss in each of the past five years.
The best performer was a global bond fund with an average gain of 5.81 per cent.
A Japan stock fund performed worst - losing 14.04 per cent on average every year.
For an employee who contributed a monthly instalment of HK$2,000 to the fund, a total of HK$16,848 would have evaporated from his MPF account over the five years. And that's before management fees put a further dent in the account.
