China’s National Social Security Fund, which is directly administered by Beijing, said this week that it had received permission to manage part of Guangdong’s local government pension fund, as the central government works to gain better control of enormous and opaque local pension funds, South China Morning Post reported. The NSSF will manage about RMB100 billion (US$15.8 billion) of the Guangdong pension fund in the first two-year phase of the plan. The organization said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday that it would guarantee Guangdong higher returns than bank deposit rates. However, analysts say the move could create tension between local governments and Beijing. “I believe most local government pension funds will be unwilling to open their books and let the central government take a look. The whole system feels like a black box,” said Yifan Hu, chief economist at Haitong International.
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