The estimated value of the state Common Retirement Fund is $150.3 billion, the highest since the global market meltdown, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said.
The fund earned an estimated 5.96 percent return in the fiscal year that ended in March. “The financial markets took investors on an up-and-down ride last year, but the New York State Common Retirement Fund’s diversified investment portfolio coupled with a long-term view have helped us weather these large swings,” DiNapoli said in a statement.
The crash cut the value of the fund’s investments to $109 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
The portfolio had a value of $155 billion two years earlier.
Last year’s most significant gains came in rebounding real estate investments and fixed-income securities.
Despite the rise, the return is still 1.5 percentage points below the fund’s assumed longtime return of 7.5 percent, said E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center. The return was lowered from 8 percent in September 2010.
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