The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund lost a quarter of its value last year and dropped from $41bn (€32bn) to $31bn. If it had invested in money in alternatives, as advised two years ago, it would have lost more money.

The scheme, which serves agencies ranging from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation, beat its benchmark over the year. The biggest quarterly loss came in the last three months of 2008, when it lost 12%, but it still beat its benchmark by one percentage point.