The National Social Security Fund, which serves as a backbone support to local pension funds to meet local shortfalls, has posted profits totalling 24.05 billion yuan by the end of last month, Xinhua reported yesterday, citing the chief of the government agency managing the fund's assets, Xiang Huaicheng .
Mr Xiang said return rate, the fund's return on investments that include investments in industries and stocks, was 11.67 per cent in the first nine months of the year.
The latest earnings were revealed as the Shanghai pension fund scandal snowballs and widens, bringing down more officials and entrepreneurs.
The fund, set up in 2000, aims to help solve the problem of China's ageing population and serves as strategic reserves accumulated by the central government to support future social security expenditures. The fund's value at current market prices was 255.4 billion yuan by the end of last month.