European defined benefit pension schemes are set to reduce equities allocations further over the next twelve months, according to a recent survey, turning instead to inflation-linked bonds in an effort to scale down risk and ride out the eurozone crisis.

Of the 120 European pension schemes surveyed by investment consultancy Mercer, 33% said that they intended to reduce their allocation to domestic equities over the next year. The move was even more pronounced among UK respondents, nearly 40% of which said they intended to reduce allocations to UK equities.