The 1.8 million Belgians who invest money in a pension savings fund have experienced their worst year since the 2008 financial crisis. A 16% loss is exceptional. The fact that we have to go back to 2008 for a worse performance says enough. In that year of financial crisis, the Bel-20 lost 53.7 percent of its value and pension funds lost a quarter of their value.
In 2022, the Bel-20 managed to limit the loss to 14.1%. A year in which investors had to deal with the war in Ukraine, high energy prices and high inflation. The fact that 2022 turned out to be a particularly weak year for pension funds has a lot to do with rising interest rates.
