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It is the multibillion-dollar fund set up to help pay for the extra costs of the retirement of the large baby boomer generation, that peaks mid-century. Now the New Zealand Superannuation Fund has released results to mark the 20 years since it began investing and it has surpassed its three benchmark targets.
The Super Fund, the brainchild of former Labour Finance Minister, the late Sir Michael Cullen, has been built up from contributions from government surpluses and investment returns over those two decades.
The Super Fund, currently at $64.4 billion, has bettered its rolling 20-year performance benchmark of 7.93 percent per annum, reaching 9.53 percent, after costs and before New Zealand tax. Its chief executive Matt Whineray says the government's finances are $40 billion better off than they would have been had those government contributions been used instead to pay down debt.
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