Growth in the KiwiSaver scheme is being offset by declining funds in other investment vehicles, though New Zealand is still better placed than most to deal with a rising pension bill, according to Finance Minister Bill English.
In the past 12 months, KiwiSaver funds under management grew $2 billion to$11 billion, of which $950 million came through government subsidies, English said at the launch of a savings survey.
"It is a better vehicle, and people are responding to that, but actually you only get more savings when you save more," English said. "If funds are moving from other managed vehicles to this one, we may or may not be better off."
English said the government had not formed a view on the looming review of KiwiSaver default schemes, but that it has to be completed by 2014. Options such as the life-cycle option, where investment risk-weightings decreased as members got older, would probably be considered.
"If they are going to stay with the default funds in significant numbers, there is a significant interest in whether those funds are the right kind of vehicle for everybody," he said.
English said there were signs New Zealand's savings rate was improving, and the government would be better placed than developed nations in the Northern Hemisphere that have embarked on lengthy austerity programmes after decades of debt-fuelled consumption.
"Our retirement arrangements are fundamentally sound - in a lot of other countries they have big pension liabilities that have to be met by governments in commercial markets when they've got these huge debt problems," he said.
English launched a new retirement study by the New Zealand Centre for Personal Financial Education, a joint initiative between Massey University and Westpac Banking, and Workplace Savings New Zealand. The study will essentially benchmark what a person needs to save through the course of their lifetime to meet various standards of living.
The survey is likely to be released in August, and will be updated on a six-monthly basis in line with the consumer price index, with a more detailed review every three years. APNZ
