BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- China's total enterprise annuity funds reached a new high of 2.32 trillion yuan (about 358 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the first quarter of the year, official data shows.

In the first three months, the investment returns of enterprise annuity funds neared 6 billion yuan, with the weighted average rate of return standing at 0.3 percent, data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security shows.

By the end of March, the aggregate volume of enterprise annuity funds had increased by 66.79 billion yuan compared with the end of last year, while the number of participating employees rose from 27.18 million to 27.79 million during the period, the ministry said.

China has 22 enterprise annuity fund management institutions as of the first quarter, including 11 companies managing public offering funds.

The country launched enterprise annuities in 2004 as a type of supplementary pension plan, under which both employers and employees must contribute. Enditem