The Canada Pension Plan saw a slight decline in the value of its investment portfolio in the first quarter of its fiscal year, but the losses were more than offset by new contributions from plan members.

Canada's national pension plan followed up the best annual performance in its history with an small loss of about $200 million on its investments in the first quarter of the fund's fiscal year, which began on April 1.

But the value of the fund as of the end of June still inched up by $4 billion to $268.6 billion, because it pulled in $4.2 billion more in contributions from plan members.

"The CPP Fund held steady through the first quarter of fiscal 2016 despite broad declines in major global equity and fixed income markets," CEO Mark Wiseman said. "This was a busy quarter with more than 25 investments across multiple programs and international markets. We continue to assess and seize opportunities that fit our disciplined approach to produce long-term risk-adjusted returns."

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board invests the funds not needed by the plan to pay current benefits on behalf of 18 million contributors and beneficiaries. As of 2013, the Chief Actuary of Canada has deemed the plan actuarially sound for the next 75 years at its current contribution rate of 9.9 per cent.

The chief actuary also expects contributions will outpace withdrawals until 2022 at least, after which point a portion of investment income will be required to pay benefits.