Figure 10 Companies' financial indicators (percent) 120  9  100  8  80  7  60  6  40  5  20  4 07  08  09  Debt/GDP (1)  10  11  12  13  14.III  Profitability of SVS companies (2)  (1) Based on firm-level information. 2007 and 2008 figures estimated using aggregate data. (2) Profits accumulated in 12 months before financial expenses and taxes on total assets of nonfinancial SVS companies. Source: Central Bank Chile based on Achef, SBIF, SII, and SVS data. BIS central bankers’ speeches  13  Figure 11 New home prices and office-space vacancy rate (Metropolitan region) (index, 2008 average = 100; percent) 150  12  140  10  130  8  120  6  110  4  100  2  90  0 08  09  10  Housing prices CChC  11  12  13  14  Office-space vacancy rate  Source: Central Bank of Chile based on Global Property Solutions and CChC data. Figure 12 Household indebtedness and financial burden (percent of disposable income) 60  18  55  16  50  14  45  12  40  10 06  07  08  09  Debt-to-income  10  11  12  13  14  Financial-burden-to-income  Source: Central Bank of Chile based on SBIF, SuSeSo, and SVS data.
At the time, pension payments from the public system were still somewhat larger than those from the occupational pension funds, but the difference was slight and, as the total pensions paid out by the occupational pension funds were growing much faster, they did overtake the public system in subsequent years. It is instructive in this regard that, according to OECD, the balance between public and private provision of mandatory pensions is heavily in favour of the private provision in Iceland, or 84%, which is the highest rate amongst OECD countries. As a result, public pension spending in Iceland is 2% of GDP, compared to the OECD average of 7.2%. The occupational pension funds have grown very fast in the last few decades, through mandatory contributions from all wages and salaries, low operational costs, and long spells of good returns. Around the turn of the century, they were the third-largest in EU and EFTA countries in terms of assets as a share of GDP, at around 80%, after Switzerland and the Netherlands. Shortly before the international financial crisis struck, Iceland had overtaken even these countries. The funds were bound to grow much more, as they were far from reaching maturity in the sense that most of those receiving pensions had not accumulated rights based on their lifetime earnings. The clearest measure of this was the fact that the pension burden, or pensions as a share of contributions, was still below 50%.