Jun 06, 2014 Maan Pamintuan-Lamorena
PM Abe instructs health minister to speed up evaluation of GPIF asset allocation
While an asset review of the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is originally set for completion by March 2015, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed Health Minister Norihisa Tamura to speed it up and complete the review by autumn this year. Tamura is in-charge of the asset allocation review as the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare administers the GPIF.
The call for an earlier completion of the asset allocation comes at a time when Japan is set to announce that it is moving out of deflation. With this development, Abe is pushing for the GPIF to diversify into stocks and less into domestic bonds. Early this week, the ministry has already finished a review of the public pension system in preparation for the GPIF asset allocation review. With the evaluation completed, it is set to create the basis for the GPIF’s $1.26 trillion fund to increase its targeted returns from 1.6 percent established years ago into 1.7 percent over nominal wage increases.
Tamura is set to announce the new timeline for the review process by Friday. While no date has been set yet, Tamura has initially expressed his desire to begin the review soon. “I believe a review in GPIF’s allocation must take place as soon as possible,” he remarked. On the other hand, GPIF President Takahiro Mitani has announced last year that evaluation of the fund may be finished as early as December of this fiscal year.