National pension fund to publish annual report today

The National Pension Reserve Fund is due to publish its annual report for 2002 later today.

The report is expected to show that the fund incurred considerable losses on the stock market last year.

The fund was established in 2000 to prepare for the future pension requirements of Ireland's ageing population.

It was set up with a 20-year plus time horizon and many economists would argue that to take last year's losses in isolation would be irrelevant.