The investments of many of the 380,000 people who have joined the KiwiSaver scheme have taken a battering with the dramatic slump in sharemarkets.
New Zealand and world sharemarkets have taken a dive in the past fortnight after falls in the United States.
Fears of a recession there and massive losses in US housing markets by big lenders have triggered waves of Americans bailing out of share investments.
New Zealand shares yesterday suffered their biggest one-day loss of $770 million.
In the past two weeks, about $4.5 billion has been knocked off New Zealand share values. Since October, about $8.5b has been lost from Kiwi shares.
The impact on KiwiSaver investors depends on how much of their money put into a fund of their choice is invested in shares and property, which are taking a hammering, and how much is in safe investments like fixed-interest investments, managers say.
KiwiSaver was launched six months ago, with more than 380,000 people so far having paid $300 million into 162 managed funds.
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Before the hits started, a recent article on the DCS sight:
“The Goal of Increased Share Market Investment – Is It a Recipe for Disaster?”
http://www.democrats.org.nz/News/Articles/2007/The-Goal-of-Increased-Share-Ma.aspx
But who listens to DSC? They’ll only prattle on about a fundmental flaw in the economic system that concentrates wealth and ruins any attempts at democratic society. Hardly news…