As seen from the chart, the yearly growth of CPF balance for women is higher than men.

I refer to the article “Women’s CPF savings go up, narrowing gender gap” (Straits Times, Oct 12).

It states that “Over the past 10 years, women’s average balance rose by 8.3 per cent a year against 7.7 per cent a year for men. This refers to savings in their Ordinary, Special, Retirement and Medisave accounts.

There are some figures which I find rather puzzling.

You can see from the above (Chart 2) that the Men’s year-on-year growth in CPF balances (%) was only about three per cent in 2006.

Since the estimated weighted average interest rate of the Sum of (the) balances in Ordinary Account, Special Account, and amount withdrawn under CPF Investment Scheme (OASA), was three per cent – wouldn’t the interest alone for the year be already about three per cent, which makes the only about three per cent growth in balances seem odd.

What happened to the CPF contributions (up to about 27 per cent of incomes) to the OA and SA accounts for that year?

As to the chart showing that average OASA balances have been increasing in the last 10 years – don’t you think its about time that there is greater transparency to reveal the statistics for all CPF members (not just active CPF members)?

In this regard, I understand that for every 6 active CPF members – there may be about 4 inactive ones – and this ratio may be reversed for older members – that is more inactive to active ones.

Leong Sze Hian