Unilever 2002 Annual Report Download - page 91

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88 Notes to the consolidated accounts
Unilever Group
Unilever Annual Report & Accounts and Form 20-F 2002
17 Pensions and similar obligations continued
Additional information
Group policy is that plans are formally valued at least every three years. The results of the valuations for the principal pension plans (that
represent 90% of all defined benefit pension plans by market value of assets and net provisions) have been updated to the year end to
provide the following aggregated information:
million million million million
31 December 31 December 31 December 31 December
2002 2001 2002 2001
Other post retirement
Pension plans benefit plans
Actuarial value of assets at the last valuation date 15 515 16 762 23
Provisions 3 147 3 318 1 073 1 284
Prepayments (840) (917) ––
Liabilities 16 590 16 306 1 042 1 210
Financing level % (a) 107% 118% 103% 106%
Actual market value of assets 12 725 16 976 23
(a) Actuarial value of assets plus net provision as % of liabilities.
The actuarial value of assets is generally a smoothed market value determined by spreading gains and losses relative to the actuarial basis
over a three-to-five-year period.
Assumptions
The long-term average assumptions used for valuing the principal pension plans, weighted by liabilities, were:
31 December 31 December
2002 2001
Interest rate 6.0% 7.0%
Inflation 2.4% 3.0%
Salary increases 3.7% 4.3%
Pension increases 2.2% 2.9%
Assumptions for the remaining defined benefit plans vary considerably depending on the economic conditions of the country where they
are situated.
For the most significant plans (representing over 75% of all defined benefit plans by liabilities) the assumptions at 31 December 2002 were:
United Kingdom Netherlands United States Germany
Interest rate 5.4% 6.5% 6.5% 5.8%
Inflation 2.2% 2.5% 2.5% 2.0%
Salary increases 3.7% 3.3% 4.5% 2.8%
Pension increases 2.5% 2.5% 0.0% 2.0%
Pension contributions to funded pension plans are reviewed regularly. Following the latest reviews in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany,
decisions have been made to recommence contributions in both the UK and Germany and the cash impact of this is expected to be
46 million in 2003.