NO.PZ2018111303000046
问题如下：
Snow Creek Village West offers its employees a defined benefit pension plan and stock option, Snow Creek Village West complies with US GAAP.
The information on the following table:
Compared to the assumptions Snow used to calculate its periodic pension cost in 2017, earnings in 2018 were higher by the change in the:
选项：
A.discount rate
B.Estimated future salary increases
C.Expected long-term rate of return on plan assets
解释：
B is correct.
考点：养老金的假设
解析：这一题问的是下列哪项变化会使2018年的NI增加
首先，明确2018年的这三个假设的数值都小于2017年的假设。
A选项：lower discount rate，会导致PBO变大，导致interest cost增加，NI降低。（因为pension的maturity通常是很久的，可以类似于债券的duration，此时PBO增长比discount rate减少对interest cost的影响更大）
B选项：Lower estimated salary increases ，预期工资增长率变低，那么final salary就变低，公司未来要打给员工的退休金就会变少，因为退休金一般是基于final salary计算出来的。未来养老金支出减少，当前PBO就会减少，对应的interest expense和current service cost都会下降，所以NI上升。
C选项Expected long-term rate of return on plan assets的降低，也就是E(R)降低，美国准则下损益表中的expected return用E(R)计算，E(R)降低则expected return减少，NI会降低。
因此，选项B正确，只有该项变化对NI是有利影响，其他都是不利影响。
a选项lower discount rate对于current service cost有影响吗
