Early release superannuation failed to significantly erode the rate of increase in superannuation assets in Australia, with investment markets acting to drive assets to $3.1 trillion, according to the latest data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
The data, covering the March quarter, revealed a 3.1% rise while for the 12 months to March, it revealed a 13.9% increase in the total value of superannuation assets.
The APRA data reveal that contributions in the March 2021 quarter were $29.2 billion, which was a decrease from the December 2020 quarter ($29.3 billion) but 2.5% more than in the March 2020 quarter and the highest March quarter contributions to date.
It said employer contributions ($24.0 billion) decreased by 1.1% over the quarter, during which the JobKeeper program concluded.
“Despite only increasing by $2 million over the quarter to $18.2 billion, super guarantee contributions consist of the highest per centage of total contributions (62.1%) since it was first measured in September 2014,” the APRA analysis said.
“Member contributions ($5.2 billion) increased by 4.6% over the quarter. This was due to an increase in personal contributions which totalled $4.8 billion for the March 2021 quarter, an increase of 5.5% over the December 2020 quarter (from $4.6 billion) and 9.6% over the March 2020 quarter (from $4.4 billion).
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