BEIJING — As of the end of March, China's enterprise annuity funds totaled 1.86 trillion yuan (about $262.3 billion), up 66.07 billion yuan from the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The funds generated 15.3 billion yuan in investment income in the first quarter of this year, with the weighted average return on investment amounting to 0.88 percent.

China launched enterprise annuities in 2004 as a form of a supplementary pension plan, under which both employers and employees must contribute to enterprise annuity plans.

In recent years, as the country's elderly population has increased, more and more employees have signed up for the annuity plans. Data showed that as of the end of last year, a total of 25.48 million employees had joined such programs.