Business

S. Korea's Pension Fund Posts 20% Gain in 2025
By Reuters | 28 Dec, 2025

The record gain was powered by a 78% jump in domestic stocks and a 25% rise in foreign stocks.

South Korea's national pension fund is likely to post a record 20% gain in investment earnings this year, the welfare ministry said on Monday, citing preliminary estimates. 

That will be bigger than a 15% gain in 2024 and the biggest since the pension fund was established in 1988, driven by a 78% rise in domestic stocks and a 25% jump in foreign stocks. 

The National Pension Service (NPS) is projected to hold 1,473 trillion won ($1.03 trillion) in assets by end-December, according to the ministry. 

In March, the country introduced a major reform to the pension system, the first in 18 years, to delay the depletion of the world's third-largest public pension fund that is on track to run out by the mid-2050s.

The NPS has also raised overseas investment for years to seek higher returns, as part of efforts to delay the depletion. 

($1 = 1,433.8400 won)

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates)