The Church of England’s investment returns dropped slightly in the 2017 financial year, after its set of impressive figures in 2016.

Investable assets increased to £8.3 billion in 2017, up from from £7.9 billion in 2016. However, its total return on investments in 2017 was 7.1 percent, lower than its target of 9.1 percent and far lower than 2016’s impressive return of 17.1 percent.

In a statement, the Church Commissioners said they were preparing for higher interest rates, higher volatility and lower returns than recent years.

First Church Estates Commissioner Loretta Minghella said its investment focus was about “consistency over the long term”.

“The macro economic environment is changing and anticipating muted returns in the future we will continue to develop our focus on non-traditional asset classes,” she added.

The group said that active management in 2017 was an important contributor to gains in public equities and real assets, while bond markets remained weak.

“Sterling strength had an impact on performance, as did being globally diversified across multiple asset classes, resulting in the fund doing less well than equities markets which were the strongest source of returns in 2017.”