Confirmation by the General Audit Chamber that General Pension Fund APS reached a coverage ratio of 109.1% last year (see Monday newspaper) compared to 98.8% in 2022 is obviously good news for its members but also the country in general. For the first time since St. Maarten established its own public sector pension fund to take over from the former Netherlands Antillean APNA as part of constitutional reforms per 10-10-10, APS exceeded the threshold of 105% required for indexation.
As announced in August, the latter allowed a 2.1% upward cost-of-living adjustment for recipients based on last year’s inflation figure, retroactive to January 1, 2024. Although that may not seem like much, it’s certainly better than nothing.
APS went from a NAf. 44.5 million loss in 2022 to NAf. 84.1 million profit one year later. This was mainly due to investments abroad, increasing the actuarial interest rate to 3.75%.
The Audit Chamber did warn about the risk of underestimating potential liabilities that could affect long-term stability if investment returns do not meet expectations. Mention was made of delays in local real estate projects.
However, progress achieved at APS was clearly acknowledged, which must be a reassuring thought especially among active, contributing government employees. After all, they are counting on the retirement fund still being healthy when their turn to reap its benefits comes.
