UK pension funds achieved overall positive returns for the fifth year running, with returns of an average 6.8% in 2007 overcoming the credit crunch which hit equities in the second half of the year.

As a result, over the three years to the end of 2007 pension funds achieved an average return of 11.4% per year, outperforming annual inflation by 7.9 percentage points on average, according to research by BNY Mellon Asset Servicing.