NEW YORK: US state public pension systems unfunded liabilities increased by 17 percent in fiscal 2015 to $1.1 trillion, largely due to the failure of investment returns meeting expectations, a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts showed on Thursday.

“In aggregate, the funded ratio of these plans dropped to 72 percent in 2015, down from 75 percent in 2014,” the study said, noting that median overall returns of 3.6 percent were less than half the long-run investment return assumption of 7.6 percent.—Reuters