Rising equity markets and assets coupled with falling liabilities led to a 15.8% decrease in the total deficit of defined benefit funds covered by the Pension Protection Fund's 7800 index for the month of October, to £262.5 billion ($404.9 billion).
Year-to-date, the total deficit has increased 59.2%.
Total liabilities were £1.516 trillion, down 2% from September and up 11.1% from October 2014. Total assets increased 1.5% to £1.254 trillion in October, and rose 4.6% over past 12 months. The FTSE All-Share index increased 4.5% in October, but was down 0.5% for the year ended Oct. 31.
The funded status improved to 82.7% from 79.9% at the end of September. The funded status was 87.9% as of Oct. 31, 2014.
Of the 6,057 pension funds covered by the PPF index, 81.6% had deficits, down from 84.2% in September but up from 75.4% as of Oct. 31, 2014.
