By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on September 28, 2016 at 6:07 PM, updated September 28, 2016 at 7:15 PM
TRENTON — The fiscal year that ended in June was a rough one for New Jersey’s public employee pension fund as it lost nearly 1 percent on its investments, state officials reported Wednesday.
The market value of the pension fund was $72.9 billion as of June 30, according to the Division of Investment, compared with $79 billion the same time last year.
Investment officials described the fiscal year as a challenging one in which the fund’s performance lagged as compared to other pension funds, as well as the benchmark the state holds itself up against.
“The one-year period ending on June 30th was a challenging and disappointing one for most investors,” said Christopher McDonough, head of the Division of Investment.
Tom Byrne, chairman of the State Investment Council, likewise described fiscal year 2016 as “an incredibly difficult investment environment.”
“You cannot expect outsize returns in an environment with such low interest rates and with equity markets at valuations that are high relative to historical data,” Byrne said at the State Investment Council meeting Wednesday.
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