POLAND - Assets in polish pension funds were down -6.8% in October alone, making it the worst month in the history of the system.

Assets fell In October by PLN9.5bn (€2.3bn) on the previous month to PLN130.2bn, according to the latest research by analizy.

The highest loss prior to this had taken place in January when funds fell 3.9% in value.

That said, all funds except one managed to beat the benchmark, according to the analysis, though managers lost a combined sum of PLN11bn and the only inflows came from contributions to the system.

The index consisting of equity returns fell by 30% while bond returns fell by 9.1%.

Only the smallest fund in the system, OFE Polsat, performed worse as it generated negative return for the month of 9.4%.

The fund also showed the largest decline in assets of 7.7% but the two largest funds - ING and Commercial Union - follow right behind with -7.3% and -7.2% respectively.

Allianz and Generali were the two funds to lose the least, returning -5.6% and -5.7% respectively.

Elswehere in Poland, the prime minister Donald Tusk is at loggerheads with president Lech Kaczynski as the latter has vetoed a pension reform bill which would have cut the number of people eligible for early retirement

Tusk wants to uphold the bill in order to cut government spending on pension but the president argued the new legislation was unjust, citing random criteria for exclusion.

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