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Australian public servants have the best performing super funds but retail superannuation schemes still command the most assets, a report on super funds' performance in the September quarter shows.
Meanwhile, the returns on industry super funds halved in percentage terms to post the biggest decline of all four sectors in the industry.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's (APRA) Superannuation Performance report, for the September quarter, showed public sector funds had the highest return on assets of 2.3 per cent compared with 2.2 per cent for corporate funds.
The average rate of return on assets across the main super funds was 2 per cent in the September quarter, down from 3 per cent in the three months to June.
Industry super fund asset returns, in the same period, declined to 2 per cent from 4 per cent.
Meanwhile, retail fund asset returns fell to 1.8 per cent from 2.5 per cent.
With industry funds posting marginally better asset returns than retail funds, Industry Super Network spokesman David Whiteley said that this was because they didn't have to pay financial advisers.
Still, retail super funds posted a 5.4 per cent return on assets in December 2006 compared with 5.1 per cent for industry funds at a time when the average for all super funds was 5.3 per cent.
- AAP
