The Social Security Investment Fund's (SSIF) total assets grew at the end of 2020 to reach JD11.19 billion, compared with JD10.99 billion at the end of 2019, according to the preliminary financial statements, SSIF CEO Kholoud Saqqaf said on Tuesday.

Saqqaf said that the "strategic distribution of the fund’s investments in various vital sectors has enhanced the resilience of the fund in facing the negative repercussions of the pandemic by maintaining the value of assets and improving them," according to a SSIF statement.

The CEO said that the fund’s assets were invested in monetary market tools by 13 per cent, bonds by 58.2 per cent, loans by 3.6, shares by 14.5 per cent, real estate by 6.5 per cent and tourism by 2.6 per cent.

According to preliminary financial lists, the income achieved by the end of 2020 totalled some JD497 million, mainly from investment revenues in fixed income tools such as bonds, bank deposits and loans that totalled JD453.4 million.

Saqqaf attributed the drop of income by the end of 2020, compared with the income earned by the end of 2019 of JD556 million, to the economic repercussions of the pandemic on the national economy.

Such repercussions include a decrease in the profits of some companies, the drop of interest rates on fixed income tools, the decline in the performance of the Amman Stock Exchange, as well as the large drop in the performance of the tourism sector, she added.

As stipulated in the SSIF strategic plan for 2019-2021, which is endorsed by the board of directors of the Social Security Corporation, the fund in 2020 expanded its real estate investments to JD717 million through buying additional real estate properties nationwide with a total value of JD60 million. 

As for investment in the bond portfolio, which constitutes 58.2 per cent of the fund’s overall portfolio, the value of revenues of the bond portfolio totalled some JD379 million by the end of 2020 with a rate of 6.1 per cent, according to the statement.