(Yicai Global) Aug. 18 -- China's social security fund yielded the lowest returns in three years last year amid Covid-19 outbreaks and stock market volatility.

The fund's return on investment was CNY113.2 billion (USD16.7 billion) or 4.3 percent, the lowest growth rate since 2018, the National Council for Social Security Fund, the fund’s manager, wrote in a report released today. The ROI was 15.8 percent in 2020, the highest ever.

The fund sold some of its overseas assets last year to dissolve risks arising from fluctuating asset prices, per the report. It bought equities in the fields of new energy, innovation, science and technology, as well as those of firms in strategic emerging industries. Moreover, the fund invested in additional fixed-income securities after seeing investment opportunities in the bond market. 

China’s national social security fund is not open to individual investors as it receives its funds from the central government and state-owned entities. The manager of the fund is an organization directly under the State Council, the country's cabinet. The annual average ROI is 8 percent since the establishment of the fund in August 2000. The total value of returns is CNY1.8 trillion (USD265.2 billion) over the past two decades.

The sovereign wealth fund totaled CNY3 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2021. Some 33.8 percent of the tally was direct assets and the remainder consisted of entrusted assets. On the other hand, Domestic assets made up almost 91 percent of the total.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi