N-CSR

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM N-CSR
CERTIFIED SHAREHOLDER REPORT OF REGISTERED
MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT COMPANIES
Investment Company Act file number: (811- 05346 )
Exact name of registrant as specified in charter: Putnam Variable Trust
Address of principal executive offices: One Post Office Square, Boston, Massachusetts 02109
Name and address of agent for service:	Beth S. Mazor, Vice President
	One Post Office Square
	Boston, Massachusetts 02109
Copy to:	John W. Gerstmayr, Esq.
	Ropes & Gray LLP
	One International Place
	Boston, Massachusetts 02110
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:	(617) 292-1000
Date of fiscal year end: December 31, 2008
Date of reporting period: January 1, 2008— December 31, 2008

Item 1. Report to Stockholders:

The following is a copy of the report transmitted to stockholders pursuant to Rule 30e-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940:

Putnam VT International Equity Fund

Putnam Investments is pleased to provide this annual report for shareholders of Putnam Variable Trust, a variable annuity offering you access to 28 funds and a wide range of investment choices. Putnam Variable Trust funds are the underlying investments for the variable insurance product subaccounts.

We are pleased to announce several important changes to our equity fund lineup and portfolio management under President and Chief Executive Officer Robert L. Reynolds. Key among them is replacing the team management structure of Putnam equity funds with a more nimble decision-making process that vests full authority and responsibility with individual fund managers. The portfolio manager of Putnam VT International Equity Fund is Joshua Byrne, who joined the company in 1992 and has 22 years of investment industry experience. In other moves aimed at achieving performance excellence, Putnam has bolstered its ranks of seasoned equity analysts with several important hires.

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
Capital appreciation
PORTFOLIO
Common stocks of mainly large and midsize international companies
NET ASSET VALUE	December 31, 2008
Class IA	$8.96
Class IB	$8.89

PERFORMANCE SUMMARY
Total return at net asset value	Class	Class
(as of 12/31/08)	IA Shares*	IB Shares†
1 year	-43.84%	-43.95%
5 years	2.38	1.13
Annualized	0.47	0.22
10 years	25.53	22.95
Annualized	2.30	2.09
Life	73.02	68.90
Annualized	4.68	4.47

During portions of the periods shown, the fund limited expenses, without which returns would have been lower.

*Class inception date: January 2, 1997.

†Class inception date: April 30, 1998. Periods and performance for class IB shares before their inception are derived from the historical performance of class IA shares, adjusted to reflect the higher operating expenses applicable to such shares.

Data represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. More recent returns may be less or more than those shown. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate, and you may have a gain or a loss when you sell your shares. All total return figures are at net asset value and exclude contract charges and expenses, which are added to the variable annuity contracts to determine total return at unit value. Had these charges and expenses been reflected, performance would be lower. For more recent performance, contact your variable annuity provider who can provide you with performance that reflects the charges and expenses at your contract level.

 

Portfolio composition will vary over time. Allocations represented as a percentage of portfolio market value. Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100%. Summary information may differ from the portfolio schedule included in the financial statements due to the inclusion of derivative securities and the use of different classifications of securities for presentation purposes. Information is as of 12/31/08 and may not reflect trades entered into on that date.

MANAGEMENT TEAM’S REPORT AND OUTLOOK

The global equity markets delivered extremely poor performance during the past 12 months. The downturn in stock prices stemmed from the collapse of the U.S. housing market, the sub-prime credit crisis, and the subsequent chaos in the financial industry. Forced to write down billions in assets, banks were compelled to tighten credit standards in an effort to shore up their balance sheets. The resulting credit freeze, together with the crisis in confidence among consumers and businesses, caused the global economy to slow significantly in the second half of 2008.

With this as the backdrop, overseas stocks trailed their domestic counterparts for the first time since 2001. During the initial stages of the U.S. financial crisis, many investors were convinced that overseas growth trends would remain unaffected. Once it became evident that the U.S. contagion was spreading around the globe, however, international stocks began to underperform sharply. In this environment, Putnam VT International Equity Fund’s class IA shares had a loss of 43.84% at net asset value for the 12-month period ended December 31, 2008.

The fund was positioned toward the more conservative sectors of the market (health care, consumer staples, and telecommunications) and away from financials and stocks with a higher degree of economic sensitivity. This helped the fund weather the unfavorable market conditions more effectively. In health care, the fund benefited from its positions in the large-cap pharmaceutical stocks Roche Holding, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline. Among the fund’s holdings in consumer staples, a position in Nestle — a classic defensive stock — was a

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notable outperformer. In telecommunications, leading contributors included KDDI, Japan’s second-largest telecom company, and Vivendi, the French media and communications conglomerate.

While the fund generally avoided the more troubled areas of the market, certain positions in economically sensitive industries stood out as detractors. In energy, for example, stocks such as Total, BP, and StatoilHydro lost substantial ground in the second half of the year. Similarly, metals and mining companies Arcelor Mittal and Rio Tinto were hit hard by falling commodity prices and slowing global growth. Concerns about the world economy also weighed on the fund’s holdings in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and the Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines.

The fund continues to be defensively positioned. Management has been emphasizing undervalued, financially healthy companies that it believes are well positioned to withstand the global economic downturn. The fund also is favoring stocks that can generate earnings growth through company-specific factors —such as rising market share, innovative products, or a lower-cost product offering — over those more reliant on cyclical growth. Still, in the months ahead management will be carefully monitoring the investment landscape for signs of when it may be appropriate to begin taking a more aggressive approach.

International investing involves certain risks, such as currency fluctuations, economic instability, and political developments. Additional risks may be associated with emerging-market securities, including illiquidity and volatility. The fund invests some or all of its assets in small and/or midsize companies. Such investments increase the risk of greater price fluctuations.

Cumulative total returns of a $10,000 investment in class IA and class IB shares at net asset value — since 12/31/98

The Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) EAFE Index is an unmanaged index of equity securities from developed countries in Western Europe, the Far East, and Australasia. Indexes assume reinvestment of all distributions and do not account for fees. Securities and performance of a fund and an index will differ. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

FUND MANAGEMENT

The fund is managed by Joshua Byrne. He may also manage other retail mutual fund counterparts to the Putnam VT Funds discussed in this report or other accounts advised by Putnam Management or an affiliate.

Investors should carefully consider the investment objective, risks, charges, and expenses of a fund, which are described in its prospectus. For this and other information or to request a prospectus, call 1-800-225-1581 toll free. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. The fund’s Statement of Additional Information contains additional information about the fund’s Trustees and is available without charge upon request by calling 1-800-225-1581.

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Understanding your VT fund’s expenses

As an investor in a variable annuity product that in turn invests in a registered investment company, you pay ongoing expenses, such as management fees, distribution fees (12b-1 fees), and other expenses. Using the information in this section, you can estimate how these expenses affect your investment and compare them with the expenses of other funds. You may also pay one-time transaction expenses, including sales charges (loads), which are not shown in this section and would result in higher total expenses. In addition, charges and expenses at the insurance company separate account level are not reflected. For more information, see your fund’s prospectus or talk to your financial representative.

Review your VT fund’s expenses

The first two columns in the table in this section, containing expense and value information, show the expenses you would have paid on a $1,000 investment in your fund from July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. They also show how much a $1,000 investment would be worth at the close of the period, assuming actual returns and expenses. You may use the information in this part of the table to estimate the expenses that you paid over the period. Simply divide your account value by $1,000, and then multiply the result by the number in the first line (“Expenses paid per $1,000”) for the class of shares you own (using the first two class IA and class IB columns only).

Compare your fund’s expenses with those of other funds

You can also use this table to compare your fund’s expenses with those of other funds. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has established guidelines to help investors assess fund expenses. Per these guidelines, the two right-hand columns of the table show your fund’s expenses based on a $1,000 investment, assuming a hypothetical 5% annualized return. You can use this information to compare the ongoing expenses (but not transaction expenses or total costs) of investing in the fund with those of other VT funds and mutual funds. All shareholder reports of mutual funds and funds serving as variable annuity vehicles will provide this information to help you make this comparison. Please note that you cannot use this information to estimate your actual ending account balance and expenses paid during the period.

Expenses for each share class are calculated using the fund’s annualized expense ratio for each class, which represents the ongoing expenses as a percentage of average net assets for the six months ended December 31, 2008. The expense ratio may differ for each share class. Expenses are calculated by multiplying the expense ratio by the average account value for the period; then multiplying the result by the number of days in the period; and then dividing that result by the number of days in the year. During portions of the period, the fund limited expenses; had it not done so, expenses would have been higher.

			EXPENSES AND VALUE
	EXPENSES AND VALUE		OF A $1,000 INVESTMENT,
	OF A $1,000 INVESTMENT,		ASSUMING A HYPOTHETICAL
	ASSUMING ACTUAL RETURNS		5% ANNUALIZED RETURN
	FOR THE 6 MONTHS		FOR THE 6 MONTHS
	ENDED 12/31/08		ENDED 12/31/08
	Class IA	Class IB	Class IA	Class IB
VT International Equity Fund
Expenses paid per $1,000	$3.68	$4.70	$4.57	$5.84
Ending value (after expenses)	$624.80	$624.70	$1,020.61	$1,019.36
Annualized expense ratio*	0.90%	1.15%	0.90%	1.15%
Lipper peer group avg. expense ratio†	0.98%	1.23%	0.98%	1.23%

* For the fund's most recent fiscal half year; may differ from expense ratios based on one-year data in the financial highlights.

† Putnam keeps fund expenses below the Lipper peer group average expense ratio by limiting our fund expenses if they exceed the Lipper average.The Lipper average is a simple average of expenses of the mutual funds serving as investment vehicles for variable insurance products in the peer group that excludes 12b-1 fees as well as any expense offset and brokerage/service arrangements that may reduce subaccount expenses.To facilitate the comparison in this presentation, Putnam has adjusted the Lipper average to reflect the 12b-1 fees carried by class IB shares. Investors should note that the other funds in the peer group may be significantly smaller or larger than the fund, and that an asset-weighted average would likely be lower than the simple average. Also, the fund and Lipper report expense data at different times and for different periods.The fund’s expense ratio shown here is annualized data for the most recent six-month period, while the quarterly upda ted Lipper average is based on the most recent fiscal year-end data available for the peer group funds as of 12/31/08.

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Trustee approval of management contract

General conclusions

The Board of Trustees of the Putnam funds oversees the management of the funds in Putnam Variable Trust and, as required by law, determines annually whether to approve the continuance of each fund’s management contract with Putnam Investment Management (“Putnam Management”) and, in respect of certain funds in Putnam Variable Trust, the sub-management contract between Putnam Management’s affiliate, Putnam Investments Limited (“PIL”), and Putnam Management. In 2008, the Board of Trustees also approved a new sub-management contract, in respect of certain funds in Putnam Variable Trust, between PIL and Putnam Management, and a new sub-advisory contract, in respect of certain funds in Putnam Variable Trust, among Putnam Management, PIL, and another affiliate, The Putnam Advisory Company (“PAC”).

In this regard, the Board of Trustees, with the assistance of its Contract Committee consisting solely of Trustees who are not “interested persons” (as such term is defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended) of the Putnam funds (the “Independent Trustees”), requests and evaluates all information it deems reasonably necessary under the circumstances. Over the course of several months ending in June 2008, the Contract Committee met several times to consider the information provided by Putnam Management and other information developed with the assistance of the Board’s independent counsel and independent staff. The Contract Committee reviewed and discussed key aspects of this information with all of the Independent Trustees. The Contract Committee recommended, and the Independent Trustees approved, the continuance of the funds’ management contract, and in respect of certain funds in Putnam Variable Trust, the sub-management and sub-advisory contracts, effective July 1, 2008. (Because PIL and PAC are affiliates of Putnam Management and Putnam Management remains fully responsible for all services provided by PIL and PAC, the Trustees have not evaluated PIL and PAC as separate entities, except as otherwise indicated below, and all subsequent references to Putnam Management below should be deemed to include reference to PIL and PAC as necessary or appropriate in the context.)

The Independent Trustees’ approval was based on the following conclusions:

• That the fee schedule in effect for your fund represented reasonable compensation in light of the nature and quality of the services being provided to the fund, the fees paid by competitive funds and the costs incurred by Putnam Management in providing such services, and

• That this fee schedule represented an appropriate sharing between fund shareholders and Putnam Management of such economies of scale as may exist in the management of the fund at current asset levels.

These conclusions were based on a comprehensive consideration of all information provided to the Trustees, were subject to the continued application of certain expense reductions and waivers and other considerations noted below, and were not the result of any single factor. Some of the factors that figured particularly in the Trustees’ deliberations and how the Trustees considered these factors are described below, although individual Trustees may have evaluated the information presented differently, giving different weights to various factors. It is also important to recognize that the fee arrangements for the funds in Putnam Variable Trust and the other Putnam funds are the result of many years of review and discussion between the Independent Trustees and Putnam Management, that certain aspects of such arrangements may receive greater scrutiny in some years than others, and that the Trustees’ conclusions may be based, in part, on their consideration of these same arrangements in prior years.

Management fee schedules and categories; total expenses

The Trustees reviewed the management fee schedules in effect for all Putnam funds, including fee levels and breakpoints, and the assignment of funds to particular fee categories. In reviewing fees and expenses, the Trustees generally focused their attention on material changes in circumstances — for example, changes in a fund’s size or investment style, changes

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in Putnam Management’s operating costs or responsibilities, or changes in competitive practices in the mutual fund industry — that suggest that consideration of fee changes might be warranted. The Trustees concluded that the circumstances did not warrant changes to the management fee structure of the funds in Putnam Variable Trust, which had been carefully developed over the years, re-examined on many occasions and adjusted where appropriate. In this regard, the Trustees also noted that shareholders of the funds in Putnam Variable Trust voted in 2007 to approve new management contracts containing an identical fee structure. The Trustees focused on two areas of particular interest, as discussed further below:

• Competitiveness. The Trustees reviewed comparative fee and expense information for competitive funds, which indicated that, in a custom peer group of competitive funds selected by Lipper Inc., the fund ranked in the following percentiles in management fees and total expenses (less any applicable 12b-1 fees and excluding charges and expenses at the insurance company separate account level) as of December 31, 2007 (the first percentile being the least expensive funds and the 100th percentile being the most expensive funds).

	Actual Management	Total Expenses
	Fee (percentile)	(percentile)
Putnam VT International Equity Fund	19th	23rd

(Because a fund’s custom peer group is smaller than its broad Lipper Inc. peer group, this expense information may differ from the Lipper peer expense information found elsewhere in this report.) The Trustees noted that expense ratios for a number of Putnam funds, which show the percentage of fund assets used to pay for management and administrative services, distribution (12b-1) fees and other expenses, had been increasing recently as a result of declining net assets and the natural operation of fee breakpoints.

The Trustees noted that the expense ratio increases described above were currently being controlled by expense limitations initially implemented in January 2004. The Trustees have received a commitment from Putnam Management and its parent company to continue this program through at least June 30, 2009. These expense limitations give effect to a commitment by Putnam Management that the expense ratio of each open-end fund would be no higher than the average expense ratio of the competitive funds included in the fund’s relevant Lipper universe (exclusive of any applicable 12b-1 charges in each case). The Trustees observed that this commitment to limit fund expenses has served shareholders well since its inception.

In order to ensure that the expenses of the Putnam funds continue to meet evolving competitive standards, the Trustees requested, and Putnam Management agreed, to extend for the twelve months beginning July 1, 2008, an additional expense limitation for certain funds at an amount equal to the average expense ratio (exclusive of 12b-1 charges) of a custom peer group of competitive funds selected by Lipper to correspond to the size of the fund. This additional expense limitation will be applied to those open-end funds that had above-average expense ratios (exclusive of 12b-1 charges) based on the custom peer group data for the period ended December 31, 2007. This additional expense limitation will not apply to your fund.

In addition, the Trustees devoted particular attention to analyzing the Putnam funds’ fees and expenses relative to those of competitors in fund complexes of comparable size and with a comparable mix of asset categories. The Trustees concluded that this analysis did not reveal any matters requiring further attention at the current time.

• Economies of scale. The funds in Putnam Variable Trust currently have the benefit of breakpoints in their management fees that provide shareholders with significant economies of scale, which means that the effective management fee rate of a fund (as a percentage of fund assets) declines as the fund grows in size and crosses specified asset thresholds. Conversely, if a fund shrinks in size — as has been the case for many Putnam funds in recent years — these breakpoints result in increasing fee levels. In recent years, the Trustees have examined the operation of the existing breakpoint structure during periods of both growth and decline in asset levels. The Trustees concluded that the fee schedules in effect for the funds in Putnam Variable Trust represented an appropriate sharing of economies of scale at current asset levels.

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In connection with their review of the management fees and total expenses of the Putnam funds, the Trustees also reviewed the costs of the services to be provided and profits to be realized by Putnam Management and its affiliates from the relationship with the funds. This information included trends in revenues, expenses and profitability of Putnam Management and its affiliates relating to the investment management and distribution services provided to the funds. In this regard, the Trustees also reviewed an analysis of Putnam Management’s revenues, expenses and profitability with respect to the funds’ management contracts, allocated on a fund-by-fund basis.

Investment performance

The quality of the investment process provided by Putnam Management represented a major factor in the Trustees’ evaluation of the quality of services provided by Putnam Management under Putnam Variable Trust’s management contract. The Trustees were assisted in their review of the Putnam funds’ investment process and performance by the work of the Investment Oversight Coordinating Committee of the Trustees and the Investment Oversight Committees of the Trustees, which had met on a regular monthly basis with the funds’ portfolio teams throughout the year. The Trustees concluded that Putnam Management generally provides a high-quality investment process — as measured by the experience and skills of the individuals assigned to the management of fund portfolios, the resources made available to such personnel, and in general the ability of Putnam Management to attract and retain high-quality personnel — but also recognized that this does not guara ntee favorable investment results for every fund in every time period. The Trustees considered the investment performance of each fund over multiple time periods and considered information comparing each fund’s performance with various benchmarks and with the performance of competitive funds.

While the Trustees noted the satisfactory investment performance of certain Putnam funds, they considered the disappointing investment performance of many funds in recent periods, particularly over periods in 2007 and 2008. They discussed with senior management of Putnam Management the factors contributing to such underperformance and actions being taken to improve performance. The Trustees recognized that, in recent years, Putnam Management has taken steps to strengthen its investment personnel and processes to address areas of underperformance, including recent efforts to further centralize Putnam Management’s equity research function. In this regard, the Trustees took into consideration efforts by Putnam Management to improve its ability to assess and mitigate investment risk in individual funds, across asset classes, and across the complex as a whole. The Trustees indicated their intention to continue to monitor performance trends to assess the effectiveness of these efforts and to evaluate whether additional changes to address areas of underperformance are warranted.

In the case of your fund, the Trustees considered the Lipper peer group percentile rankings for the fund’s class IA share cumulative total return performance results at net asset value for the one-year, three-year and five-year periods ended December 31, 2007. This information is shown in the following table. (Because of the passage of time, these performance results may differ from the performance results for more recent periods shown elsewhere in this report. In addition, results do not reflect charges and expenses at the insurance company separate account level.) Where applicable, the table also shows the number of funds in the peer group for the respective periods; this number is indicated in parentheses following the percentile. Note that the first percentile denotes the best performing funds and the 100th percentile denotes the worst performing funds. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

	One-year	Three-year	Five-year
	period	period	period
	percentile	percentile	percentile
	(# of funds	(# of funds	(# of funds
IA Share as of 12/31/07	in category)	in category)	in category)
Putnam VT International Equity Fund	81st (135)	70th (122)	80th (113)
Lipper VP (Underlying Funds) — International Core Funds

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See page 9 for more recent Lipper performance ranking information for the fund. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The Trustees noted the disappointing performance for your fund for the one-year and five-year periods ended December 31, 2007. In this regard, the Trustees considered that Putnam Management continues to have confidence in the investment process for this fund given its stronger longer term record, recognizing the tendency for short-term variability over a market cycle. The Trustees also considered Putnam Management’s belief that the Large Cap Equities team’s leadership changes and the research centralization efforts underway in the equity space at Putnam more generally will strengthen the fund’s investment process, which focuses on a blend of quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis, and enhance the fund’s performance potential.

* * *

As a general matter, the Trustees believe that cooperative efforts between the Trustees and Putnam Management represent the most effective way to address investment performance problems. The Trustees noted that investors in the Putnam funds have, in effect, placed their trust in the Putnam organization, under the oversight of the funds’ Trustees, to make appropriate decisions regarding the management of the funds. Based on the responsiveness of Putnam Management in the recent past to Trustee concerns about investment performance, the Trustees concluded that it is preferable to seek change within Putnam Management to address performance shortcomings. In the Trustees’ view, the alternative of engaging a new investment adviser for an underperforming fund would entail significant disruptions and would not provide any greater assurance of improved investment performance.

Brokerage and soft-dollar allocations; other benefits

The Trustees considered various potential benefits that Putnam Management may receive in connection with the services it provides under the management contract with Putnam Variable Trust. These include benefits related to brokerage and soft-dollar allocations, whereby a portion of the commissions paid by a fund for brokerage may be used to acquire research services that may be useful to Putnam Management in managing the assets of the fund and of other clients. The Trustees considered changes made in 2008, at Putnam Management’s request, to the Putnam funds’ brokerage allocation policy, which expanded the permitted categories of brokerage and research services payable with soft dollars and increased the permitted soft dollar allocation to third-party services over what had been authorized in previous years. The Trustees indicated their continued intent to monitor the potential benefits associated with the allocation of fund brokerage and trends in industry pract ice to ensure that the principle of seeking “best price and execution” remains paramount in the portfolio trading process.

The Trustees’ annual review of Putnam Variable Trust’s management contract arrangements also included the review of its distributor’s contract and distribution plan with Putnam Retail Management Limited Partnership and the investor servicing agreement with Putnam Fiduciary Trust Company (“PFTC”), each of which provides benefits to affiliates of Putnam Management. In the case of the investor servicing agreement, the Trustees considered that certain shareholder servicing functions were shifted to a third-party service provider by PFTC in 2007.

Comparison of retail and institutional fee schedules

The information examined by the Trustees as part of their annual contract review has included for many years information regarding fees charged by Putnam Management and its affiliates to institutional clients such as defined benefit pension plans, college endowments, etc. This information included comparisons of such fees with fees charged to the funds, as well as a detailed assessment of the differences in the services provided to these two types of clients. The Trustees observed, in this regard, that the differences in fee rates between institutional clients and mutual funds are by no means uniform when examined by individual asset sectors, suggesting that differences in the pricing of investment management

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services to these types of clients reflect to a substantial degree historical competitive forces operating in separate market places. The Trustees considered the fact that fee rates across different asset classes are typically higher on average for mutual funds than for institutional clients, as well as the differences between the services that Putnam Management provides to the Putnam funds and those that it provides to institutional clients of the firm, but did not rely on such comparisons to any significant extent in concluding that the management fees paid by the funds in Putnam Variable Trust are reasonable.

More Recent Peer Group Rankings

More recent Lipper percentile rankings are shown for the fund in the following table. Note that this information was not available to the Trustees when they approved the continuance of the funds’ management contract. The table shows the Lipper peer group percentile rankings of the fund’s class IA share total return performance at net asset value. These rankings were determined on an annualized basis and are for the one-year, five-year, and ten-year periods ended on the most recent calendar quarter (December 31, 2008). Where applicable, the table also shows the fund’s rank among the total number of funds in its peer group for the respective periods; this information is indicated in parentheses following the percentile. Note that the first percentile denotes the best performing funds and the 100th percentile denotes the worst performing funds.

	One-year	Five-year	Ten-year
IA Share as of 12/31/08	period rank	period rank	period rank
Putnam VT International Equity Fund	57% (63/111)	76% (70/92)	29% (13/44)
Lipper VP (Underlying Funds) — International Core Funds

Approval of the Sub-Management Contract between Putnam Management and Putnam Investments Limited and the Sub-Advisory Contract among Putnam Management, Putnam Investments Limited andThe Putnam Advisory Company

In 2008, the Trustees approved a new sub-management contract between Putnam Management and PIL in respect of certain funds in Putnam Variable Trust, under which PIL’s London office would begin managing a separate portion of the assets of certain funds. Also in 2008, the Trustees approved a new sub-advisory contract among Putnam Management, PIL and PAC in respect of certain funds in Putnam Variable Trust, under which PAC’s Tokyo branch would begin providing non-discretionary investment services to certain funds, and PAC’s Singapore branch would begin providing discretionary investment management services to certain funds. The applicable funds and their respective sub-management and/or sub-advisory contracts are listed in the table below, along with the Trustee approval date, the effective date of the services, and the type of PAC services provided, if applicable. The Contract Committee reviewed information provided by Putnam Management, PIL and PAC and, upo n completion of this review, recommended, and the Independent Trustees and the full Board of Trustees approved, the sub-management contract and the sub-advisory contract in respect of the funds in Putnam Variable Trust listed below.

The Trustees considered numerous factors they believed relevant in approving your fund’s sub-management and sub-advisory contracts, including Putnam Management’s belief that the interest of shareholders would be best served by utilizing investment professionals in PIL’s London office and PAC’s Tokyo and Singapore offices to manage a portion of certain funds’ assets and PIL’s and PAC’s expertise in managing assets invested in European and Asian markets, respectively. The Trustees also considered that applicable securities laws require a sub-advisory relationship among Putnam Management, PIL and PAC in order for Putnam’s investment professionals in London, Tokyo and Singapore to be involved in the management of your fund. The Trustees noted that Putnam Management, and not your fund, would pay the sub-management fee to PIL for its services, that Putnam Management and/or PIL, but not your fund, would pay the sub-advisory fee to PAC for its services, and that the sub-management and sub-advisory relationships with PIL and PAC, respectively, will not reduce the nature, quality or overall level of service provided to the applicable funds.

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		Trustee Approval		Type of PAC
Fund Name	Contract(s)	Date(s)	Effective Date(s)	Services Provided*
Putnam VT International Equity Fund	PAC sub-advisory contract	May 2008	June 30, 2008	Discretionary and
				non-discretionary
				investment services

Other important information

Proxy voting

Putnam is committed to managing our mutual funds in the best interests of our shareholders. The Putnam funds’ proxy voting guidelines and procedures, as well as information regarding how your fund voted proxies relating to portfolio securities during the 12-month period ended June 30, 2008, are available in the Individual Investors section of www.putnam.com and on the SEC’s Web site, www.sec.gov. If you have questions about finding forms on the SEC’s Web site, you may call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. You may also obtain the Putnam funds’ proxy voting guidelines and procedures at no charge by calling Putnam’s Shareholder Services at 1-800-225-1581.

Fund portfolio holdings

Each Putnam VT fund will file a complete schedule of its portfolio holdings with the SEC for the first and third quarters of each fiscal year on Form N-Q. Shareholders may obtain the fund’s Forms N-Q on the SEC’s Web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, the fund’s Forms N-Q may be reviewed and copied at the SEC’s public reference room in Washington, D.C. You may call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 for information about the SEC’s Web site or the operation of the public reference room.

*Discretionary investment management services are provided by PAC’s Singapore office and non-discretionary investment management services are provided by PAC’s Tokyo office.

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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Trustees of Putnam Variable Trust and Shareholders of
Putnam VT International Equity Fund:

In our opinion, the accompanying statement of assets and liabilities, including the fund’s portfolio, and the related statements of operations and of changes in net assets and the financial highlights present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Putnam VT International Equity Fund (the “fund”) at December 31, 2008, and the results of its operations, the changes in its net assets and the financial highlights for each of the periods indicated, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These financial statements and financial highlights (hereafter referred to as “financial statements”) are the responsibility of the fund’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits of these financial statements in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United Sta tes). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits, which included confirmation of investments owned at December 31, 2008 by correspondence with the custodian and brokers, provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Boston, Massachusetts
February 11, 2009

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Putnam VT International Equity Fund

The fund’s portfolio
12/31/08

COMMON STOCKS (99.0%)*
	Shares	Value
Australia (1.2%)
Australia & New Zealand Banking
Group, Ltd.	94,870	$1,034,795
Macquarie Airports	184,501	315,775
Macquarie Infrastructure Group	2,385,736	2,907,817
QBE Insurance Group, Ltd.	79,584	1,470,092
Rio Tinto, Ltd.	11,858	322,764
Westpac Banking Corp.	32,071	388,112
Woolworths, Ltd.	16,098	305,223
		6,744,578
Belgium (0.3%)
InBev NV 144A	37,210	866,320
UCB SA	21,336	697,915
		1,564,235
Brazil (0.6%)
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR	148,800	3,644,112
Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas
Gerais (Usiminas) (Preference)	10,800	123,829
		3,767,941
Canada (0.1%)
Potash Corp. Of Saskatchewan, Inc.	2,300	169,653
Suncor Energy, Inc.	11,508	224,870
		394,523
China (2.5%)
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.	6,564,000	4,043,931
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. ADR	75,158	4,644,013
China Shenhua Energy Co., Ltd.	351,500	753,807
Industrial & Commercial Bank
of China	8,689,000	4,618,105
		14,059,856
Denmark (—%)
D/S Norden	5,209	184,584
		184,584
Finland (1.5%)
Nokia OYJ	547,423	8,522,381
		8,522,381
France (13.0%)
Air Liquide SA	3,165	290,799
Alcatel SA †	64,204	139,214
Alstom	4,308	255,470
AXA SA	342,658	7,671,612
BNP Paribas SA	157,584	6,682,212
Electricite de France	145,079	8,467,614
France Telecom SA	346,033	9,719,689
Gaz de France SA	13,566	674,711
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA	5,509	371,686
Sanofi-Aventis	4,966	316,738
SCOR	51,582	1,190,878
Total SA	339,021	18,560,430

COMMON STOCKS (99.0%)* continued
	Shares	Value
France continued
UBISOFT Entertainment †	20,706	$406,536
Unibail-Rodamco (R)	2,409	360,309
Vinci SA	108,281	4,579,225
Vivendi SA	445,512	14,565,879
		74,253,002
Germany (7.6%)
Adidas-Salomon AG	12,176	470,262
Allianz SE	86,008	9,263,881
BASF SE	165,240	6,556,864
Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) AG	176,699	5,454,384
Deutsche Telekom AG	30,855	470,771
E.On AG	202,599	8,227,011
Merck KGaA	3,645	332,789
MTU Aero Engines Holding AG	153,440	4,246,332
Muenchener
Rueckversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG	37,139	5,860,848
RWE AG	9,029	815,093
SAP AG	10,709	385,417
Siemens AG	8,991	676,265
Tognum AG	35,334	453,237
Volkswagen AG	1,419	499,179
		43,712,333
Greece (0.6%)
Hellenic Telecommunication
Organization (OTE) SA	210,486	3,516,266
		3,516,266
Hong Kong (1.0%)
BOC Hong Kong Holdings, Ltd.	2,838,500	3,240,227
Hutchison Whampoa, Ltd.	99,000	499,405
Link REIT (The) (R)	959,500	1,595,028
Wharf (Holdings), Ltd.	213,000	588,563
		5,923,223
Israel (0.1%)
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries,
Ltd. ADR	10,600	451,242
		451,242
Italy (2.1%)
Finmeccanica SpA	716,411	11,030,752
Intesa Sanpaolo SpA	177,784	627,856
Saras SpA	82,243	282,079
		11,940,687
Japan (23.3%)
Aeon Co., Ltd.	74,500	744,567
Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.	37,900	536,684
Astellas Pharma, Inc.	165,600	6,723,661
Canon, Inc.	34,400	1,077,492
Credit Saison Co., Ltd.	90,500	1,246,729
Daito Trust Construction Co., Ltd.	166,400	8,693,735

12

COMMON STOCKS (99.0%)* continued
	Shares	Value
Japan continued
Dowa Mining Co., Ltd.	72,000	$264,269
East Japan Railway Co.	1,286	10,021,324
Electric Power Development Co.	12,100	474,234
Fuji Photo Film Cos., Ltd.	11,600	254,730
Fuji Television Network, Inc.	203	289,849
Fujitsu, Ltd.	1,411,000	6,805,005
Honda Motor Co., Ltd.	140,200	3,033,865
Inpex Holdings, Inc.	44	346,859
Japan Tobacco, Inc.	2,138	7,064,195
JFE Holdings, Inc.	12,100	319,339
KAO Corp.	17,000	513,677
KDDI Corp.	1,878	13,346,399
Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc.	41,100	1,090,793
Lawson, Inc.	46,000	2,647,076
Mitsubishi Corp.	88,300	1,236,866
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Group, Inc.	1,001,300	6,199,312
Mitsui & Co., Ltd.	319,000	3,255,965
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.	87,000	1,442,577
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.	313,000	1,917,932
Nintendo Co., Ltd.	19,800	7,590,312
Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd.	2,000	10,482
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
(NTT) Corp.	1,951	10,462,563
NSK, Ltd.	868,000	3,252,170
NTT DoCoMo, Inc.	279	548,780
Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.	88,300	4,581,142
Panasonic Corp.	338,000	4,225,940
Sankyo Co., Ltd.	19,000	957,535
Sony Corp.	12,600	273,309
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.	86,300	662,079
Suruga Bank, Ltd. (The)	57,000	563,274
Suzuken Co., Ltd.	78,300	2,354,103
Terumo Corp.	92,500	4,322,332
Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc.	45,700	1,336,164
Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.	1,738,000	8,787,883
Toyo Suisan Kaisha, Ltd.	97,000	2,781,916
Toyota Motor Corp.	22,500	734,867
		132,991,985
Luxembourg (0.7%)
Arcelor Mittal	174,715	4,228,917
		4,228,917
Netherlands (3.6%)
ASML Holding NV	21,124	378,546
Koninklijke (Royal) KPN NV	706,447	10,287,203
Koninklijke Ahold NV	714,377	8,817,006

Putnam VT International Equity Fund

COMMON STOCKS (99.0%)* continued
	Shares	Value
Netherlands continued
Royal Dutch Shell PLC Class A	15,704	$416,403
Unilever NV	22,018	535,744
		20,434,902
Norway (2.2%)
DnB Holdings ASA	1,116,284	4,490,026
StatoilHydro ASA	474,818	7,874,587
		12,364,613
Singapore (1.8%)
Chartered Semiconductor
Manufacturing, Ltd. †	1,336,000	168,918
Singapore Airlines, Ltd.	630,800	4,969,853
United Overseas Bank, Ltd.	582,000	5,272,963
		10,411,734
Spain (2.4%)
Banco Santander Central Hispano SA	1,174,417	11,382,152
Iberdrola SA	89,080	830,607
Telefonica SA	66,521	1,497,375
		13,710,134
Switzerland (16.0%)
Credit Suisse Group	67,637	1,841,165
Julius Baer Holding, Ltd. Class B	25,795	985,470
Nestle SA	546,962	21,409,336
Nobel Biocare Holding AG	11,770	239,445
Novartis AG	377,725	18,795,920
Roche Holding AG	131,148	20,049,641
Straumann Holding AG	93	16,269
Swisscom AG	35,640	11,426,846
Syngenta AG	22,077	4,247,658
UBS AG †	17,190	247,610
Zurich Financial Services AG	56,192	12,114,246
		91,373,606
United Arab Emirates (0.3%)
Aldar Properties PJSC	1,623,385	1,754,700
		1,754,700
United Kingdom (18.1%)
Anglo American PLC	20,864	483,415
BAE Systems PLC	1,369,594	7,571,846
BAT Industries PLC	24,424	643,732
BG Group PLC	390,403	5,498,112
BHP Billiton PLC	572,630	10,941,483
BP PLC	2,018,208	15,686,191
Britvic PLC	197,166	763,112
Centrica PLC	1,121,849	4,372,832
Davis Service Group PLC	275,669	1,100,058
GlaxoSmithKline PLC	951,787	17,923,128
HSBC Holdings PLC (London Exchange)	104,956	1,018,986
Lloyds TSB Group PLC	82,347	152,886

13

COMMON STOCKS (99.0%)* continued
	Shares	Value
United Kingdom continued
Lloyds TSB Group PLC (F) †	35,796	$5
Next PLC	21,331	338,757
Premier Foods PLC	2,987,358	1,334,598
Prudential PLC	917,318	5,665,036
Reckitt Benckiser PLC	163,462	6,177,145
Reed Elsevier PLC	37,994	280,909
Rio Tinto PLC	176,584	3,880,966
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC	5,297,240	3,884,429
Standard Chartered PLC	119,776	1,553,125
Unilever PLC	18,742	432,039
Vodafone Group PLC	4,182,702	8,541,191
WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC	97,696	401,924
WPP PLC	786,246	4,649,044
		103,294,949
Total common stocks (cost $755,260,672)		$565,600,391
INVESTMENT COMPANIES (1.6%)*
	Shares	Value
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund	198,200	$8,893,234
Total investment companies (cost $9,939,631)		$8,893,234

WARRANTS (—%)* †
	Expiration	Strike
	date	price	Warrants	Value
Fuji Media
Holdings, Inc. 144A
(issued by Merrill
Lynch International
& Co.) (Japan) (F)	11/18/09	0.001	197	$279,899
Total warrants (cost $257,213)				$279,899

SHORT-TERM INVESTMENTS (1.8%)*
	Shares	Value
Federated Prime Obligations Fund	10,062,457	$10,062,457
Total short-term investments (cost $10,062,457)		$10,062,457
Total investments (cost $775,519,973)		$584,835,981

* Percentages indicated are based on net assets of $571,554,014.

† Non-income-producing security.

(F) Is valued at fair value following procedures approved by theTrustees. Securities may be classified as a Level 2 or Level 3 for FASB 157 disclosures based on the securities valuation inputs. On December 31, 2008, fair value pricing was also used for certain foreign securities in the portfolio (Note 1).

(R) Real Estate InvestmentTrust.

At December 31, 2008, liquid assets totaling $5,710,192 have been designated as collateral for open forward contracts.

144A after the name of an issuer represents securities exempt from registration under Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.These securities may be resold in transactions exempt from registration, normally to qualified institutional buyers.

ADR after the name of a foreign holding stands for American Depository Receipts representing ownership of foreign securities on deposit with a custodian bank.

The fund had the following industry concentrations greater than 10% at December 31, 2008 (as a percentage of net assets):

Pharmaceuticals	12.2%
Oil and gas	10.7

FORWARD CURRENCY CONTRACTS TO BUY at 12/31/08
(aggregate face value $137,949,871)
				Unrealized
		Aggregate	Delivery	appreciation/
	Value	face value	date	(depreciation)
Australian Dollar	$32,309,066	$33,726,622	1/21/09	$(1,417,556)
British Pound	18,502,573	18,669,207	1/21/09	(166,634)
Canadian Dollar	9,911,749	10,872,021	1/21/09	(960,272)
Euro	33,819,576	31,145,324	1/21/09	2,674,252
Japanese Yen	12,772,722	12,720,487	1/21/09	52,235
Norwegian Krone	9,394,604	9,179,142	1/21/09	215,462
Swedish Krona	17,193,817	16,687,384	1/21/09	506,433
Swiss Franc	5,352,578	4,949,684	1/21/09	402,894
Total				$1,306,814
FORWARD CURRENCY CONTRACTS TO SELL at 12/31/08
(aggregate face value $116,097,107)
				Unrealized
		Aggregate	Delivery	appreciation/
	Value	face value	date	(depreciation)
Australian Dollar	$4,345,769	$4,028,343	1/21/09	$(317,426)
British Pound	7,075,593	6,992,593	1/21/09	(83,000)
Canadian Dollar	12,520,498	13,487,990	1/21/09	967,492
Euro	19,654,590	18,146,515	1/21/09	(1,508,075)
Norwegian Krone	19,828,743	19,473,485	1/21/09	(355,258)
Swedish Krona	8,167,686	7,929,659	1/21/09	(238,027)
Swiss Franc	51,521,235	46,038,522	1/21/09	(5,482,713)
Total				$(7,017,007)

In September 2006, the FASB issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157, Fair Value Measurements (SFAS 157). SFAS 157 is effective for financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after November 15, 2007 and interim periods within those fiscal years. While the adoption of SFAS 157 does not have a material effect on the fund’s net asset value, it does require additional disclosures about fair value measurements.The Standard establishes a three-level hierarchy for disclosure of fair value measurements.The valuation hierarchy is based upon the transparency of inputs to the valuation of the fund’s investments. The three levels are defined as follows:

Level 1 - Valuations based on quoted prices for identical securities in active markets.

Level 2 - Valuations based on quoted prices in markets that are not active or for which all significant inputs are observable, either directly or indirectly.

Level 3 - Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and significant to the fair value measurement.

The following is a summary of the inputs used to value the fund’s net assets as of December 31, 2008:

14

Putnam VT International Equity Fund

		Other
	Investments in	financial
Valuation inputs	securities	instruments*
Level 1	$29,968,110	$—
Level 2	554,867,866	(5,710,193)
Level 3	5	—
Total	$584,835,981	$(5,710,193)

* Other financial instruments include futures, written options,TBA sale commitments, swaps and forward contracts which are valued at the unrealized appreciation/(depreciation) on the instrument.

The following is a reconciliation of Level 3 assets as of December 31, 2008:

		Other
Investments in		financial
securities		instruments*
Balance as of December 31, 2007	$—	$—
Accrued discounts/premiums	—	—
Realized gain/loss	—	—
Change in net unrealized
appreciation (depreciation)	5	—
Net purchases/sales	—	—
Net transfers in and/or out of Level 3	—	—
Balance as of December 31, 2008	$5	$—

* Other financial instruments include futures, written options,TBA sale commitments, swaps and forward contracts which are valued at the unrealized appreciation/ (depreciation) on the instrument.

THE ACCOMPANYING NOTES ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THESE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

15

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Statement of Assets and Liabilities

December 31, 2008
	Putnam VT
	International
	Equity
	Fund
Assets
Investments in securities, at value (Note 1):
Unaffiliated issuers	$584,835,981
Foreign currency, at value (Note 1)	2,977,856
Dividends, interest, and other receivables	659,805
Receivable for shares of the fund sold	40,140
Receivable for securities sold	7,978,031
Receivable for open forward currency contracts (Note 1)	5,475,160
Receivable for closed forward currency contracts (Note 1)	4,198,758
Receivable for receivable purchase agreement (Note 2)	148,798
Foreign tax reclaim	504,410
Total assets	606,818,939
Liabilities
Payable to custodian (Note 2)	49,427
Payable for securities purchased	17,218,240
Payable for shares of the fund repurchased	190,914
Payable for compensation of Manager (Note 2)	1,126,238
Payable for investor servicing fees (Note 2)	9,237
Payable for custodian fees (Note 2)	50,581
Payable for Trustee compensation and expenses (Note 2)	124,007
Payable for administrative services (Note 2)	2,227
Payable for distribution fees (Note 2)	82,190
Payable for open forward currency contracts (Note 1)	11,185,353
Payable for closed forward currency contracts (Note 1)	5,082,587
Other accrued expenses	143,924
Total liabilities	35,264,925
Net assets	$571,554,014
Represented by:
Paid-in capital (Unlimited shares authorized) (Notes 1 and 4)	$948,801,793
Undistributed net investment income (loss) (Note 1)	5,710,192
Accumulated net realized gain (loss) on investments
and foreign currency transactions (Note 1)	(186,645,940)
Net unrealized appreciation (depreciation) of
investments and assets and liabilities in
foreign currencies	(196,312,031)
Total — Representing net assets applicable to capital
shares outstanding	$571,554,014
Computation of net asset value Class IA
Net Assets	$167,900,706
Number of shares outstanding	18,734,164
Net asset value, offering price and redemption
price per share (net assets divided by number
of shares outstanding)	$8.96
Computation of net asset value Class IB
Net Assets	$403,653,308
Number of shares outstanding	45,423,755
Net asset value, offering price and redemption
price per share (net assets divided by number
of shares outstanding)	$8.89
Cost of investments, (Note 1):
Unaffiliated issuers	$775,519,973
Cost of foreign currency (Note 1)	2,981,865

THE ACCOMPANYING NOTES ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THESE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

16

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Statement of Operations

Year ended December 31, 2008
	Putnam VT
	International
	Equity
	Fund
Investment income
Dividends	$38,418,512
Interest — unaffiliated issuers	22,540
Interest — affiliated issuers (Note 5)	137,089
Securities lending	983,791
Less: foreign taxes withheld	(3,656,807)
Total investment income	35,905,125
Expenses
Compensation of Manager (Note 2)	6,758,125
Investor servicing fees (Note 2)	271,855
Custodian fees (Note 2)	145,232
Trustee compensation and expenses (Note 2)	51,115
Administrative services (Note 2)	35,188
Distribution fees — class IB (Note 2)	1,551,772
Auditing	99,561
Legal	47,853
Other	362,894
Fees waived and reimbursed by Manager (Notes 2 and 5)	(4,540)
Total expenses	9,319,055
Expense reduction (Note 2)	(164,241)
Net expenses	9,154,814
Net investment income (loss)	26,750,311
Net realized gain (loss) on investments (Notes 1 and 3)	(177,405,135)
Net increase from payments by affiliates (Note 2)	5,368
Net realized gain (loss) on foreign currency transactions (Note 1)	(29,065,476)
Net unrealized appreciation (depreciation) of assets and
liabilities in foreign currencies during the year	(311,316)
Net unrealized appreciation (depreciation) of investments
during the year	(302,220,852)
Net gain (loss) on investments	(508,997,411)
Net increase (decrease) in net assets resulting
from operations	$(482,247,100)

THE ACCOMPANYING NOTES ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THESE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

17

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Statement of Changes in Net Assets

	Putnam VT
	International Equity Fund
	Year ended
	December 31	December 31
	2008	2007
Increase (decrease) in net assets
Operations:
Net investment income (loss)	$26,750,311	$17,738,908
Net realized gain (loss) on investments and
foreign currency transactions	(206,465,243)	191,184,365
Net unrealized appreciation (depreciation)
of investments and assets and
liabilities in foreign currencies	(302,532,168)	(101,040,898)
Net increase (decrease) in net assets
resulting from operations	(482,247,100)	107,882,375
Distributions to shareholders (Note 1):
From ordinary income
Net investment income
Class IA	(6,888,978)	(12,348,566)
Class IB	(13,227,599)	(25,529,092)
Net realized short-term gain on investments
Class IA	(15,183,973)	(9,464,092)
Class IB	(33,863,151)	(20,974,802)
From net realized long-term gain on investments
Class IA	(30,672,425)	(40,401,491)
Class IB	(68,405,347)	(89,539,842)
From return of capital
Class IA	(766,348)	—
Class IB	(1,666,251)	—
Increase in capital from settlement payment	933,373	—
Increase (decrease) from capital share
transactions (Note 4)	16,638,801	29,621,132
Total increase (decrease) in net assets	(635,348,998)	(60,754,378)
Net assets:
Beginning of year	1,206,903,012	1,267,657,390
End of year	$571,554,014	$1,206,903,012
Undistributed net investment income (loss),
end of year	$5,710,192	$25,299,617

THE ACCOMPANYING NOTES ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THESE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

18

THIS PAGE LEFT BLANK INTENTIONALLY

19

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST
Financial highlights (For a common share outstanding throughout the period)

INVESTMENT OPERATIONS:					LESS DISTRIBUTIONS:							RATIOS AND SUPPLEMENTAL DATA:
			Net								Total			Ratio of net
	Net asset		realized and	Total	From	From				Net asset	return	Net	Ratio of	investment
	value,	Net	unrealized	from	net	net realized	From			value,	at net	assets,	expenses to	income (loss)	Portfolio
	beginning	investment	gain (loss) on	investment	investment	gain on	return of	Total	Non-recurring	end	asset	end of period	average net	to average	turnover
Period ended	of period	income (loss)(a,i)	investments	operations	income	investments	capital	distributions	reimbursements	of period	value (%)(b,c)	(in thousands)	assets (%)(b,d,i)	net assets (%)(i)	(%)
Putnam VT International Equity Fund (Class IA)
December 31, 2008	$19.11	.43	(7.74)	(7.31)	(.37)	(2.44)	(.04)	(2.85)	.01(m)	$8.96	(43.84)	$167,901	.87	3.17	71.03
December 31, 2007	20.78	.31	1.33	1.64	(.66)	(2.65)	—	(3.31)	—	19.11	8.61	381,400	.84	1.56	83.16
December 31, 2006	16.36	.38	4.19	4.57	(.15)	—	—	(.15)	—	20.78	28.04	410,278	.93	2.08	90.26
December 31, 2005	14.80	.20(k)	1.61	1.81	(.25)	—	—	(.25)	—	16.36	12.46	377,816	.93	1.37(k)	86.02
December 31, 2004	12.91	.16	1.95	2.11	(.22)	—	—	(.22)	—	14.80	16.58	427,548	.94	1.21	62.84
Putnam VT International Equity Fund (Class IB)
December 31, 2008	$18.96	.39	(7.67)	(7.28)	(.32)	(2.44)	(.04)	(2.80)	.01(m)	$8.89	(43.95)	$403,653	1.12	2.91	71.03
December 31, 2007	20.64	.26	1.32	1.58	(.61)	(2.65)	—	(3.26)	—	18.96	8.37	825,503	1.09	1.31	83.16
December 31, 2006	16.26	.32	4.17	4.49	(.11)	—	—	(.11)	—	20.64	27.72	857,380	1.18	1.77	90.26
December 31, 2005	14.71	.16(k)	1.61	1.77	(.22)	—	—	(.22)	—	16.26	12.20	621,897	1.18	1.06(k)	86.02
December 31, 2004	12.85	.12	1.94	2.06	(.20)	—	—	(.20)	—	14.71	16.19	558,206	1.19	.95	62.84

(a) Per share net investment income (loss) has been determined on the basis of the weighted average number of shares outstanding during the period.

(b) The charges and expenses at the insurance company separate account level are not reflected.

(c) Total return assumes dividend reinvestment.

(d) Includes amounts paid through expense offset and brokerage service arrangements (Note 2).

(i) Reflects an involuntary contractual expense limitation and/or waivers of certain fund expenses in connection with investments in Putnam Prime Market Fund during the period. As a result of such limitation and/or waivers, the expenses of the fund’s class IA and class IB shares reflect a reduction of the following amounts (Notes 2 and 5):

	Percentage
	of average
	net assets
December 31, 2008	<0.01%
December 31, 2007	<0.01
December 31, 2006	<0.01
December 31, 2005	<0.01
December 31, 2004	<0.01

(k) Reflects a non-recurring accrual related to Putnam Management’s settlement with the SEC regarding broker allocation practices, which amounted to less than $0.01 per share and less than 0.01% of average net assets for class IA and IB shares for the period ended December 31, 2005.

(m) Reflects a non-recurring reimbursement pursuant to a settlement between The Hartford Financial Services Group and the Attorney Generals of New York State, Illinois and Connecticut, which amounted to $0.01 per share for the year ended December 31, 2008.

THE ACCOMPANYING NOTES ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THESE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.	THE ACCOMPANYING NOTES ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THESE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.
20	21

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Notes to Financial Statements
December 31, 2008

NOTE 1

SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Putnam VT International Equity Fund (the “fund”), a Massachusetts business trust, is one of a series of funds comprising Putnam Variable Trust (the “Trust”), which is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, as a diversified, open-end management investment company. The fund seeks capital appreciation primarily through investments in equity securities issued mainly by large and midsize international companies.

The fund offers class IA and class IB shares of beneficial interest. Class IA shares are offered at net asset value and are not subject to a distribution fee. Class IB shares are offered at net asset value and pay an ongoing distribution fee, which is identified in Note 2.

Investment income, realized and unrealized gains and losses and expenses of the fund are borne pro-rata based on the relative net assets of each class to the total net assets of the fund, except that each class bears expenses unique to that class (including the distribution fees applicable to such classes). Each class votes as a class only with respect to its own distribution plan or other matters on which a class vote is required by law or determined by the Trustees. If the fund were liquidated, shares of each class would receive their pro-rata share of the net assets of the fund. In addition, the Trustees declare separate dividends on each class of shares.

In the normal course of business, the fund enters into contracts that may include agreements to indemnify another party under given circumstances. The fund’s maximum exposure under these arrangements is unknown as this would involve future claims that may be, but have not yet been, made against the fund. However, the fund’s management team expects the risk of material loss to be remote.

The following is a summary of significant accounting policies consistently followed by the fund in the preparation of its financial statements. The preparation of financial statements is in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities in the financial statements and the reported amounts of increases and decreases in net assets from operations during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

A) Security valuation Investments for which market quotations are readily available are valued at the last reported sales price on their principal exchange, or official closing price for certain markets. If no sales are reported — as in the case of some securities traded over-the-counter — a security is valued at its last reported bid price. Many securities markets and exchanges outside the U.S. close prior to the close of the New York Stock Exchange and therefore the closing prices for securities in such markets or on such exchanges may not fully reflect events that occur after such close but before the close of the New York Stock Exchange. Accordingly, on certain days, the fund will fair value foreign equity securities taking into account multiple factors, including movements in the U.S. securities markets. The number of days on which fair value prices will be used will depend on market activity and it is possible th at fair value prices will be used by the fund to a significant extent. At December 31, 2008, fair value pricing was used for certain foreign securities in the portfolio. Securities quoted in foreign currencies, if any, are translated into U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate. To the extent a pricing service or dealer is unable to value a security or provides a valuation which Putnam Investment Management, LLC (“Putnam Management”), the fund’s manager, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Putnam Investments, LLC, does not believe accurately reflects the security’s fair value, the security will be valued at fair value by Putnam Management. Certain investments, including certain restricted and illiquid securities and derivatives, are also valued at fair value following procedures approved by the Trustees. Such valuations and procedures are reviewed periodically by the Trustees. The fair value of securities is generally determined as the

22

amount that the fund could reasonably expect to realize from an orderly disposition of such securities over a reasonable period of time. By its nature, a fair value price is a good faith estimate of the value of a security at a given point in time and does not reflect an actual market price, which may be different by a material amount.

B) Joint trading account Pursuant to an exemptive order from the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), the fund may transfer uninvested cash balances, including cash collateral received under security lending arrangements, into a joint trading account along with the cash of other registered investment companies and certain other accounts managed by Putnam Management. These balances may be invested in issues of short-term investments having maturities of up to 397 days for collateral received under security lending arrangements and up to 90 days for other cash investments.

C) Repurchase agreements The fund, or any joint trading account, through its custodian, receives delivery of the underlying securities, the market value of which at the time of purchase is required to be in an amount at least equal to the resale price, including accrued interest. Collateral for certain tri-party repurchase agreements is held at the counterparty’s custodian in a segregated account for the benefit of the fund and the counterparty. Putnam Management is responsible for determining that the value of these underlying securities is at all times at least equal to the resale price, including accrued interest.

D) Security transactions and related investment income Security transactions are recorded on the trade date (the date the order to buy or sell is executed). Gains or losses on securities sold are determined on the identified cost basis.

Interest income is recorded on the accrual basis. Dividend income, net of applicable withholding taxes, is recognized on the ex-dividend date except that certain dividends from foreign securities, if any, are recognized as soon as the fund is informed of the ex-dividend date. Non-cash dividends, if any, are recorded at the fair market value of the securities received. Dividends representing a return of capital or capital gains, if any, are reflected as a reduction of cost and/or as a realized gain.

E) Foreign currency translation The accounting records of the fund are maintained in U.S. dollars. The market value of foreign securities, currency holdings, and other assets and liabilities is recorded in the books and records of the fund after translation to U.S. dollars based on the exchange rates on that day. The cost of each security is determined using historical exchange rates. Income and withholding taxes are translated at prevailing exchange rates when earned or incurred. The fund does not isolate that portion of realized or unrealized gains or losses resulting from changes in the foreign exchange rate on investments from fluctuations arising from changes in the market prices of the securities. Such gains and losses are included with the net realized and unrealized gain or loss on investments. Net realized gains and losses on foreign currency transactions represent net realized exchange gains or losses on closed forward currency contracts, disposition of foreign currencies, currency gains and losses realized between the trade and settlement dates on securities transactions and the difference between the amount of investment income and foreign withholding taxes recorded on the fund’s books and the U.S. dollar equivalent amounts actually received or paid. Net unrealized appreciation and depreciation of assets and liabilities in foreign currencies arise from changes in the value of open forward currency contracts and assets and liabilities other than investments at the period end, resulting from changes in the exchange rate. Investments in foreign securities involve certain risks, including those related to economic instability, unfavorable political developments, and currency fluctuations, not present with domestic investments.

F) Forward currency contracts The fund may buy and sell forward currency contracts, which are agreements between two parties to buy and sell currencies at a set price on a future date. These contracts are used to protect

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against a decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar of the currencies in which its portfolio securities are denominated or quoted (or an increase in the value of a currency in which securities a fund intends to buy are denominated, when a fund holds cash reserves and short term investments), or for other investment purposes. The U.S. dollar value of forward currency contracts is determined using current forward currency exchange rates supplied by a quotation service. The market value of the contract will fluctuate with changes in currency exchange rates. The contract is marked to market daily and the change in market value is recorded as an unrealized gain or loss. When the contract is closed, the fund records a realized gain or loss equal to the difference between the value of the contract at the time it was opened and the value at the time it was closed. The fund could be exposed to risk if the value of the currency changes unfavorably, if the coun-terparties to the contracts are unable to meet the terms of their contracts or if the fund is unable to enter into a closing position. Risks may exceed amounts recognized on the Statement of assets and liabilities. Forward currency contracts outstanding at period end, if any, are listed after the fund’s portfolio.

G) Securities lending The fund may lend securities, through its agents, to qualified borrowers in order to earn additional income. The loans are collateralized by cash and/or securities in an amount at least equal to the market value of the securities loaned. The market value of securities loaned is determined daily and any additional required collateral is allocated to the fund on the next business day. The risk of borrower default will be borne by the fund’s agents; the fund will bear the risk of loss with respect to the investment of the cash collateral. Income from securities lending is included in investment income on the Statement of operations. At December 31, 2008, the fund had no securities out on loan.

H) Federal taxes It is the policy of the fund to distribute all of its taxable income within the prescribed time and otherwise comply with the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), applicable to regulated investment companies. It is also the intention of the fund to distribute an amount sufficient to avoid imposition of any excise tax under Section 4982 of the Code. The fund is subject to the provisions of FASB Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainties in Income Taxes (FIN 48). FIN 48 sets forth a minimum threshold for financial statement recognition of the benefit of a tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. The fund did not have any unrecognized tax benefits in the accompanying financial statements. Therefore, no provision has been made for federal taxes on income, capital gains or unrealized appreciation on securities he ld nor for excise tax on income and capital gains. Each of the fund’s federal tax returns for the prior three fiscal years remains subject to examination by the Internal Revenue Service.

At December 31, 2008, the fund had a capital loss carryover of $181,244,086 available to the extent allowed by the Code to offset future net capital gain, if any. The amount of the carryover and the expiration dates are:

Loss Carryover	Expiration
$4,461,856	December 31, 2009
2,230,928	December 31, 2010
2,230,928	December 31, 2011
172,320,374	December 31, 2016

I) Distributions to shareholders Distributions to shareholders from net investment income are recorded by the fund on the ex-dividend date. Distributions from capital gains, if any, are recorded on the ex-dividend date and paid at least annually. The amount and character of income and gains to be distributed are determined in accordance with income tax regulations, which may differ from generally accepted accounting principles. These differences include temporary and/or permanent differences of losses on wash sale transactions, foreign currency gains and losses, net operating loss, receivable purchase agreement gain, restitution payment and taxable dividend adjustment. Reclassifi-cations are made to the fund’s capital accounts to reflect income and gains available for distribution (or available capital loss carryovers) under income tax regulations. For the year ended December 31, 2008, the fund reclassified $26,223,159 to d ecrease undistributed net investment income and $2,579,938 to decrease paid-in-capital, with an increase to accumulated net realized losses of $28,803,097.

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The tax basis components of distributable earnings and the federal tax cost as of December 31, 2008 were as follows:

Unrealized appreciation	$18,990,240
Unrealized depreciation	(214,724,187)
	—————————
Net unrealized depreciation	(195,733,947)
Capital loss carryforward	(181,244,086)
Cost for federal income tax purposes	$780,569,928

J) Expenses of the trust Expenses directly charged or attributable to any fund will be paid from the assets of that fund. Generally, expenses of the trust will be allocated among and charged to the assets of each fund on a basis that the Trustees deem fair and equitable, which may be based on the relative assets of each fund or the nature of the services performed and relative applicability to each fund.

K) Beneficial interest At December 31, 2008, insurance companies or their separate accounts were record owners of all but a de minimis number of the shares of the fund. Approximately 59.9% of the fund is owned by accounts of one group of insurance companies.

NOTE 2

MANAGEMENT FEE, ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES AND OTHER TRANSACTIONS

The fund pays Putnam Management for management and investment advisory services quarterly based on the average net assets of the fund. Such fee is based on the following annual rates: 0.80% of first $500 million of average net assets, 0.70% of the next $500 million, 0.65% of the next $500 million, 0.60% of the next $5 billion, 0.575% of the next $5 billion, 0.555% of the next $5 billion, 0.54% of the next $5 billion and 0.53% thereafter.

Putnam Management has agreed to waive fees and reimburse expenses of the fund through June 30, 2009 to the extent necessary to ensure that the fund’s expenses do not exceed the simple average of the expenses for the fund’s Lipper peer group of funds underlying variable insurance products that have the same investment classification or objective as the fund. The expense reimbursement is based on a comparison of the fund’s expenses with the average annualized operating expenses of the funds in its Lipper peer group for each calendar quarter during the fund’s last fiscal year, excluding 12b-1 fees and without giving effect to any expense offset and brokerage/service arrangements that may reduce fund expenses. For the year ended December 31, 2008, Putnam Management did not waive any of its management fee from the fund.

Putnam Investments Limited (“PIL”), an affiliate of Putnam Management, is authorized by the Trustees to manage a separate portion of the assets of the fund as determined by Putnam Management from time to time. Putnam Management pays a quarterly sub-management fee to PIL for its services at an annual rate of 0.35% of the average net assets of the portion of the fund managed by PIL.

Effective June 30, 2008, the Putnam Advisory Company, LLC (“PAC”), an affiliate of Putnam Management, is authorized by the Trustees to manage and provide investment recommendations with respect to a portion of the assets of the fund, as designated from time to time by Putnam Management or PIL. Putnam Management or PIL, as applicable, pays a quarterly sub-advisory fee to PAC for its services at the annual rate of 0.35% of the average net assets of the portion of the fund’s assets managed and 0.10% of the average net assets of the portion of the fund’s assets for which PAC provides investment recommendations.

Putnam Management voluntarily reimbursed the fund $5,368 for a trading error which occurred during the period. The effect of the loss incurred and the reimbursement by Putnam Management of such amounts had no impact on total return.

On September 26, 2008, the fund entered into an Agreement with another registered investment company (the “Purchaser”) managed by Putnam Management. Under the Agreement, the fund sold to the Purchaser the fund’s right to receive, in the aggregate, $577,377 in net payments from Lehman Brothers Special Financing, Inc. in connection with certain terminated derivatives transactions (the “Receivable”), in exchange for an initial payment plus (or minus) additional amounts based on the applicable Purchaser’s ultimate realized gain (or loss) on the Receivable. The Receivable will be offset against the funds net receivable from Lehman Brothers Special Financing, Inc. which is included in the Statement of assets and liabilities

25

within the Receivable for closed forward currency contracts. The Agreement, which is included in the Statement of assets and liabilities, is valued at fair value following procedures approved by the Trustees. All remaining payments under the Agreement will be recorded as realized gain or loss.

The fund reimburses Putnam Management an allocated amount for the compensation and related expenses of certain officers of the fund and their staff who provide administrative services to the fund. The aggregate amount of all such reimbursements is determined annually by the Trustees.

Custodial functions for the fund’s assets were provided by State Street Bank and Trust Company (“State Street”). Custody fees are based on the fund’s asset level, the number of its security holdings and transaction volumes.

Putnam Investor Services, a division of Putnam Fiduciary Trust Company (“PFTC”), which is an affiliate of Putnam Management, provided investor servicing agent functions to the fund through December 31, 2008. Subsequent to December 31, 2008, these services were provided by Putnam Investor Services, Inc., another affiliate of Putnam Management. Putnam Investor Services was paid a monthly fee for investor servicing at an annual rate of 0.03% of the fund’s average net assets. During the year ended December 31, 2008, the amounts incurred for investor servicing agent functions provided by PFTC are included in Investor servicing fees in the Statement of operations.

Under the custodian contract between the fund and State Street, the custodian bank has a lien on the securities of the fund to the extent permitted by the fund’s investment restrictions to cover any advances made by the custodian bank for the settlement of securities purchased by the fund. At December 31, 2008, the payable to the custodian bank represents the amount due for cash advanced for the settlement of securities purchased.

The fund has entered into expense offset arrangements with PFTC and State Street whereby PFTC’s and State Street’s fees are reduced by credits allowed on cash balances. The fund also reduced expenses through brokerage/service arrangements. For the year ended December 31, 2008, the fund’s expenses were reduced by $2,604 under the expense offset arrangements and by $161,637 under the brokerage/service arrangements.

Each independent Trustee of the fund receives an annual Trustee fee, of which $505, as a quarterly retainer, has been allocated to the fund, and an additional fee for each Trustees meeting attended. Trustees receive additional fees for attendance at certain committee meetings and industry seminars and for certain compliance-related matters. Trustees also are reimbursed for expenses they incur relating to their services as Trustees.

The fund has adopted a Trustee Fee Deferral Plan (the “Deferral Plan”) which allows the Trustees to defer the receipt of all or a portion of Trustees fees payable on or after July 1, 1995. The deferred fees remain invested in certain Putnam funds until distribution in accordance with the Deferral Plan.

The fund has adopted an unfunded noncontributory defined benefit pension plan (the “Pension Plan”) covering all Trustees of the fund who have served as a Trustee for at least five years and were first elected prior to 2004. Benefits under the Pension Plan are equal to 50% of the Trustee’s average annual attendance and retainer fees for the three years ended December 31, 2005. The retirement benefit is payable during a Trustee’s lifetime, beginning the year following retirement, for the number of years of service through December 31, 2006. Pension expense for the fund is included in Trustee compensation and expenses in the Statement of operations. Accrued pension liability is included in Payable for Trustee compensation and expenses in the Statement of assets and liabilities. The Trustees have terminated the Pension Plan with respect to any Trustee first elected after 2003.

The fund has adopted a distribution plan (the “Plan”) with respect to its class IB shares pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The purpose of the Plan is to compensate Putnam Retail Management Limited Partnership, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Putnam Investments, LLC and Putnam Retail Management GP,

26

Inc., for services provided and expenses incurred in distributing shares of the fund. The Plan provides for payment by the fund to Putnam Retail Management Limited Partnership at an annual rate of up to 0.35% of the average net assets attributable to the fund’s class IB shares. The Trustees have approved payment by the fund at an annual rate of 0.25% of the average net assets attributable to the fund’s class IB shares.

NOTE 3

PURCHASES AND SALES OF SECURITIES

During the year ended December 31, 2008, cost of purchases and proceeds from sales of investment securities other than short-term investments aggregated $641,324,163 and $795,934,077, respectively. There were no purchases or sales of U.S. government securities.

NOTE 4

CAPITAL SHARES

At December 31, 2008, there was an unlimited number of shares of beneficial interest authorized. Subscriptions and redemptions are presented at the omnibus level. Transactions in capital shares were as follows:

	Year ended December 31		Year ended December 31
	2008		2007
	Shares	Amount	Shares	Amount
Putnam VT International Equity Fund Class IA
Shares sold	463,935	$5,318,035	1,066,689	$20,554,283
Shares issued in connection with reinvestment of distributions	3,716,092	53,511,724	3,412,734	62,214,149
	4,180,027	58,829,759	4,479,423	82,768,432
Shares repurchased	(5,401,269)	(72,459,406)	(4,272,046)	(84,114,881)
Net increase (decrease)	(1,221,242)	$(13,629,647)	207,377	$(1,346,449)
Putnam VT International Equity Fund Class IB
Shares sold	3,547,479	$ 42,308,818	5,341,810	$ 105,283,252
Shares issued in connection with reinvestment of distributions	8,187,446	117,162,348	7,507,933	136,043,736
	11,734,925	159,471,166	12,849,743	241,326,988
Shares repurchased	(9,849,742)	(129,202,718)	(7,043,734)	(137,810,379)
Redemptions in kind	—	—	(3,810,348)	(72,549,028)
Net increase	1,885,183	$30,268,448	1,995,661	$30,967,581

NOTE 5

INVESTMENT IN PUTNAM PRIME MONEY MARKET FUND

The fund invested in Putnam Prime Money Market Fund, an open-end management investment company managed by Putnam Management. Investments in Putnam Prime Money Market Fund were valued at its closing net asset value each business day. Management fees paid by the fund were reduced by an amount equal to the management fees paid by Putnam Prime Money Market Fund with respect to assets invested by the fund in Putnam Prime Money Market Fund. For the year ended December 31, 2008, management fees paid were reduced by $4,540 relating to the fund’s investment in Putnam Prime Money Market Fund. Income distributions earned by the fund were recorded as interest income in the Statement of operations and totaled $137,089 for the year ended December 31, 2008. During the year ended December 31, 2008, cost of purchases and proceeds of sales of investments in Putnam Prime Money Market Fund aggregated $162,324,240 and $167,254,831, respectively.

On September 17, 2008, the Trustees of the Putnam Prime Money Market Fund voted to close that fund effective September 17, 2008. On September 24, 2008, the fund received shares of Federated Prime Obligations Fund, an unaffiliated management investment company registered

27

under the Investment Company Act of 1940, in liquidation of its shares of Putnam Prime Money Market Fund.

NOTE 6

REGULATORY MATTERS AND LITIGATION

In late 2003 and 2004, Putnam Management settled charges brought by the SEC and the Massachusetts Securities Division in connection with excessive short-term trading in Putnam funds. Distribution of payments from Putnam Management to certain open-end Putnam funds and their shareholders is expected to be completed in the next several months. These allegations and related matters have served as the general basis for certain lawsuits, including purported class action lawsuits against Putnam Management and, in a limited number of cases, some Putnam funds. Putnam Management believes that these lawsuits will have no material adverse effect on the funds or on Putnam Management’s ability to provide investment management services. In addition, Putnam Management has agreed to bear any costs incurred by the Putnam funds as a result of these matters.

NOTE 7

NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

In March 2008, Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 161, Disclosures about Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities (“SFAS 161”) — an amendment of FASB Statement No. 133, was issued and is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after November 15, 2008. SFAS 161 requires enhanced disclosures about how and why an entity uses derivative instruments and how derivative instruments affect an entity’s financial position. Putnam Management is currently evaluating the impact the adoption of SFAS 161 will have on the fund’s financial statement disclosures.

NOTE 8

MARKET AND CREDIT RISK

In the normal course of business the fund trades financial instruments and enters into financial transactions where risk of potential loss exists due to changes in the market (market risk) or failure of the contracting party to the transaction to perform (credit risk). The fund may be exposed to additional credit risk that an institution or other entity with which the funds have unsettled or open transactions will default.

NOTE 9

OTHER ITEMS

The fund is a party to ISDA (International Swap and Derivatives Association, Inc.) Master Agreements with certain counterparties that govern OTC derivative and foreign exchange contracts entered into from time to time. As of December 31, 2008, due to a decrease in the fund's net asset value during the year, such counterparties were entitled to elect, but had not yet elected, to terminate early, and cause settlement of all derivative and foreign exchange contracts outstanding under the applicable Master Agreements, including the payment by the fund of any losses and costs resulting from such early termination, as reasonably determined by such counterparty. Any decision by the counterparty to elect early termination could impact the fund's future derivative activity. At December 31, 2008, the fund had net unrealized gains/(losses) on derivative contracts subject to the Master Agreements of $1,372,194 and $(7,082,387), respectively. The fund intends to seek a waiver of, or other relief from this provision, from the counterparties.

28

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Federal Tax Information
(Unaudited)

For the period, interest and dividends from foreign countries were $37,992,164 or $0.59 per share for all classes of shares. Taxes paid to foreign countries were $1,683,185 or $0.03 per share for all classes of shares.

29

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST
Brokerage Commissions
December 31, 2008 (Unaudited)

Brokerage commissions are paid to firms that execute trades on behalf of your fund. When choosing these firms, Putnam is required by law to seek the best execution of the trades, taking all relevant factors into consideration, including expected quality of execution and commission rate. Listed below are Putnam’s groupings of funds and these groups’ largest relationships based upon brokerage commissions for the 12 months ended December 31, 2008.

INTERNATIONAL GROUP

Putnam Europe Equity Fund, Putnam Global Equity Fund, Putnam International Capital Opportunities Fund, Putnam International Equity Fund, Putnam International Growth and Income Fund, Putnam International New Opportunities Fund, Putnam VT Global Equity Fund, Putnam VT International Equity Fund, Putnam VT International Growth and Income Fund, and Putnam VT International New Opportunities Fund.

The top five firms that received brokerage commissions for trades executed for the International group are (in descending order) Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, and Goldman Sachs & Co. Commissions paid to these firms together represented approximately 47% of the total brokerage commissions paid for the 12 months ended December 31, 2008.

Commissions paid to the next 10 firms together represented approximately 34% of the total brokerage commissions paid during the period. These firms are Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., CLSA, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Lehman Brothers, Macquaire Securities (USA), Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, JPMorgan Securities, Morgan Stanley & Co., RBC Capital Markets, and Redburn Partners.

Commission amounts do not include “mark-ups” paid on bond or derivative trades made directly with a dealer. Additional information about brokerage commissions is available on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Web site at www.sec.gov. Putnam funds disclose commissions by firm to the SEC in semiannual filings on form N-SAR.

30

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Trustees of the Putnam Funds
December 31, 2008

Jameson A. Baxter (Born 1943), Trustee since 1994, Vice Chairman since 2005

Ms. Baxter is the President of Baxter Associates, Inc., a private investment firm.

Ms. Baxter serves as a Director of ASHTA Chemicals, Inc., and the Mutual Fund Directors Forum. Until 2007, she was a Director of Banta Corporation (a printing and supply chain management company), Ryerson, Inc. (a metals service corporation), and Advocate Health Care. Until 2004, she was a Director of BoardSource (formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards); and until 2002, she was a Director of Intermatic Corporation (a manufacturer of energy control products). She is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees, Mount Holyoke College, having served as Chairman for five years.

Ms. Baxter has held various positions in investment banking and corporate finance, including Vice President of and Consultant to First Boston Corporation and Vice President and Principal of the Regency Group. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College.

Charles B. Curtis (Born 1940), Trustee since 2001

Mr. Curtis is President and Chief Operating Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (a private foundation dealing with national security issues), and serves as Senior Advisor to the United Nations Foundation.

Mr. Curtis is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as Director of Edison International and Southern California Edison. Until 2006, Mr. Curtis served as a member of the Trustee Advisory Council of the Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University. Until 2003, Mr. Curtis was a member of the Electric Power Research Institute Advisory Council and the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory. Prior to 2002, Mr. Curtis was a member of the Board of Directors of the Gas Technology Institute and the Board of Directors of the Environment and Natural Resources Program Steering Committee, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Until 2001, Mr. Curtis was a member of the Department of Defense Policy Board and Director of EG&G Technical Services, Inc. (a fossil energy research and development support company).

From August 1997 to December 1999, Mr. Curtis was a Partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. Prior to May 1997, Mr. Curtis was Deputy Secretary of Energy and Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. He served as Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 1977 to 1981 and has held positions on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the SEC.

Robert J. Darretta (Born 1946), Trustee since 2007

Mr. Darretta serves as Director of UnitedHealth Group, a diversified health-care company.

Until April 2007, Mr. Darretta was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s largest and most broadly based health-care companies. Prior to 2007, he had responsibility for Johnson & Johnson’s finance, investor relations, information technology, and procurement function. He served as Johnson & Johnson Chief Financial Officer for a decade, prior to which he spent two years as Treasurer of the corporation and over ten years leading various Johnson & Johnson operating companies.

Mr. Darretta received a B.S. in Economics from Villanova University.

Myra R. Drucker (Born 1948), Trustee since 2004

Ms. Drucker is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Commonfund (a not-for-profit firm specializing in managing assets for educational endowments and foundations), Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Sarah Lawrence College, and a member of the Investment Committee of the Kresge Foundation (a charitable trust). She is also a Director of Interactive Data Corporation (a provider of financial market data and analytics to financial institutions and investors).

Ms. Drucker is an ex-officio member of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Pension Managers Advisory Committee, having served as Chair for seven years. She serves as an advisor to RCM Capital Management (an investment management firm) and to the Employee Benefits Investment Committee of The Boeing Company (an aerospace firm).

From November 2001 until August 2004, Ms. Drucker was Managing Director and a member of the Board of Directors of General Motors Asset Management and Chief Investment Officer of General Motors Trust Bank. From December 1992 to November 2001, Ms. Drucker served as Chief Investment Officer of Xerox Corporation (a document company). Prior to December 1992, Ms. Drucker was Staff Vice President and Director of Trust Investments for International Paper (a paper and packaging company).

Ms. Drucker received a B.A. degree in Literature and Psychology from Sarah Lawrence College and pursued graduate studies in economics, statistics, and portfolio theory at Temple University.

31

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Trustees of the Putnam Funds (Continued)
December 31, 2008

Charles E. Haldeman, Jr.* (Born 1948), Trustee since 2004 and President of the Funds since 2007

Mr. Haldeman is Chairman of Putnam Investment Management, LLC and President of the Putnam Funds. Prior to July 2008, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Putnam, LLC (“Putnam Investments”). Prior to November 2003, Mr. Haldeman served as Co-Head of Putnam Investments’ Investment Division.

Prior to joining Putnam in 2002, he held executive positions in the investment management industry. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Delaware Investments and President and Chief Operating Officer of United Asset Management. Mr. Haldeman was also a Partner and Director of Cooke & Bieler, Inc. (an investment management firm).

Mr. Haldeman currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Investment Company Institute and as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College. He also serves on the Partners HealthCare Investment Committee, the Tuck School of Business Overseers, and the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School. Mr. Haldeman is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

John A. Hill (Born 1942), Trustee since 1985 and Chairman since 2000

Mr. Hill is founder and Vice-Chairman of First Reserve Corporation, the leading private equity buyout firm specializing in the worldwide energy industry, with offices in Greenwich, Connecticut; Houston, Texas; London, England; and Shanghai, China. The firm’s investments on behalf of some of the nation’s largest pension and endowment funds are currently concentrated in 26 companies with annual revenues in excess of $13 billion, which employ over 100,000 people in 23 countries.

Mr. Hill is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Putnam Mutual Funds, a Director of Devon Energy Corporation and various private companies owned by First Reserve, and serves as a Trustee of Sarah Lawrence College where he chairs the Investment Committee.

Prior to forming First Reserve in 1983, Mr. Hill served as President of F. Eberstadt and Company, an investment banking and investment management firm. Between 1969 and 1976, Mr. Hill held various senior positions in Washington, D.C. with the federal government, including Deputy Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Deputy Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration during the Ford Administration.

Born and raised in Midland, Texas, he received his B.A. in Economics from Southern Methodist University and pursued graduate studies as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

Paul L. Joskow (Born 1947), Trustee since 1997

Dr. Joskow is an economist and President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (a philanthropic institution focused primarily on research and education on issues related to science, technology, and economic performance). He is on leave from his position as the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has been on the faculty since 1972. Dr. Joskow was the Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at MIT from 1999 through 2007.

Dr. Joskow serves as a Trustee of Yale University, as a Director of TransCanada Corporation (an energy company focused on natural gas transmission and power services) and of Exelon Corporation (an energy company focused on power services), and as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Prior to August 2007, he served as a Director of National Grid (a UK-based holding company with interests in electric and gas transmission and distribution and telecommunications infrastructure). Prior to July 2006, he served as President of the Yale University Council. Prior to February 2005, he served on the board of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (a non-profit research institution). Prior to February 2002, he was a Director of State Farm Indemnity Company (an automobile insurance company), and prior to March 2000, he was a Director of New England Electric System (a public utility holding company).

Dr. Joskow has published six books and numerous articles on industrial organization, government regulation of industry, and competition policy. He is active in industry restructuring, environmental, energy, competition, and privatization policies — serving as an advisor to governments and corporations worldwide. Dr. Joskow holds a Ph.D. and MPhil from Yale University and a B.A. from Cornell University.

32

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Trustees of the Putnam Funds (Continued)
December 31, 2008

Elizabeth T. Kennan (Born 1938), Trustee since 1992

Dr. Kennan is a Partner of Cambus-Kenneth Farm (thoroughbred horse and cattle breeding). She is President Emeritus of Mount Holyoke College.

Dr. Kennan served as Chairman and is now Lead Director of Northeast Utilities. She is a Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, of Centre College, and of Midway College in Midway, Kentucky. Until 2006, she was a member of The Trustees of Reservations. Prior to 2001, Dr. Kennan served on the oversight committee of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Prior to June 2005, she was a Director of Talbots, Inc., and she has served as Director on a number of other boards, including Bell Atlantic, Chastain Real Estate, Shawmut Bank, Berkshire Life Insurance, and Kentucky Home Life Insurance. Dr. Kennan has also served as President of Five Colleges Incorporated and as a Trustee of Notre Dame University, and is active in various educational and civic associations.

As a member of the faculty of Catholic University for twelve years, until 1978, Dr. Kennan directed the post-doctoral program in Patristic and Medieval Studies, taught history, and published numerous articles and two books. Dr. Kennan holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle, an M.S. from St. Hilda’s College at Oxford University, and an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College. She holds several honorary doctorates.

Kenneth R. Leibler (Born 1949), Trustee since 2006

Mr. Leibler is a founder and former Chairman of the Boston Options Exchange, an electronic marketplace for the trading of derivative securities.

Mr. Leibler currently serves as a Trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. He is also Lead Director of Ruder Finn Group, a global communications and advertising firm, and a Director of Northeast Utilities, which operates New England’s largest energy delivery system. Prior to December 2006, he served as a Director of the Optimum Funds group. Prior to October 2006, he served as a Director of ISO New England, the organization responsible for the operation of the electric generation system in the New England states. Prior to 2000, Mr. Leibler was a Director of the Investment Company Institute in Washington, D.C.

Prior to January 2005, Mr. Leibler served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Stock Exchange. Prior to January 2000, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Financial Companies, a publicly traded diversified asset management organization. Prior to June 1990, Mr. Leibler served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and at the time was the youngest person in AMEX history to hold the title of President. Prior to serving as AMEX President, he held the position of Chief Financial Officer, and headed its management and marketing operations. Mr. Leibler graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Economics from Syracuse University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

Robert E. Patterson (Born 1945), Trustee since 1984

Mr. Patterson is Senior Partner of Cabot Properties, LP and Chairman of Cabot Properties, Inc. (a private equity firm investing in commercial real estate).

Mr. Patterson serves as Chairman Emeritus and Trustee of the Joslin Diabetes Center. Prior to June 2003, he was a Trustee of Sea Education Association. Prior to December 2001, Mr. Patterson was President and Trustee of Cabot Industrial Trust (a publicly traded real estate investment trust). Prior to February 1998, he was Executive Vice President and Director of Acquisitions of Cabot Partners Limited Partnership (a registered investment adviser involved in institutional real estate investments). Prior to 1990, he served as Executive Vice President of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes Realty Advisors, Inc. (the predecessor company of Cabot Partners).

Mr. Patterson practiced law and held various positions in state government, and was the founding Executive Director of the Massachusetts Industrial Finance Agency. Mr. Patterson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

George Putnam, III (Born 1951), Trustee since 1984

Mr. Putnam is Chairman of New Generation Research, Inc. (a publisher of financial advisory and other research services), and President of New Generation Advisers, Inc. (a registered investment adviser to private funds). Mr. Putnam founded the New Generation companies in 1986.

Mr. Putnam is a Director of The Boston Family Office, LLC (a registered investment adviser). He is a Trustee of St. Mark’s School and a Trustee of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Until 2006, he was a Trustee of Shore Country Day School, and until 2002, was a Trustee of the Sea Education Association.

Mr. Putnam previously worked as an attorney with the law firm of Dechert LLP (formerly known as Dechert Price & Rhoads) in Philadelphia. He is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School.

33

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Trustees of the Putnam Funds (Continued)

December 31, 2008

Robert L. Reynolds* (Born 1952), Trustee since 2008

Mr. Reynolds is President and Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments, and a member of Putnam Investments’ Executive Board of Directors. He has more than 30 years of investment and financial services experience.

Prior to joining Putnam Investments in 2008, Mr. Reynolds was Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Fidelity Investments from 2000 to 2007. During this time, he served on the Board of Directors for FMR Corporation, Fidelity Investments Insurance Ltd., Fidelity Investments Canada Ltd., and Fidelity Management Trust Company. He was also a Trustee of the Fidelity Family of Funds. From 1984 to 2000, Mr. Reynolds served in a number of increasingly responsible leadership roles at Fidelity.

Mr. Reynolds serves on several not-for-profit boards, including those of the West Virginia University Foundation, Concord Museum, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Lahey Clinic, and Initiative for a Competitive Inner City in Boston. He is a member of the Chief Executives Club of Boston, the National Innovation Initiative, and the Council on Competitiveness.

Mr. Reynolds received a B.S. in Business Administration/Finance from West Virginia University.

Richard B. Worley (Born 1945), Trustee since 2004 Mr. Worley is Managing Partner of Permit Capital LLC, an investment management firm.

Mr. Worley serves as a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (a philanthropic organization devoted to health-care issues), and the National Constitution Center. He is also a Director of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (a historical preservation organization), and the Philadelphia Orchestra Association. Mr. Worley also serves on the investment committees of Mount Holyoke College and World Wildlife Fund (a wildlife conservation organization).

Prior to joining Permit Capital LLC in 2002, Mr. Worley served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Investment Management and as a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, a financial services firm. Mr. Worley also was the Chairman of Miller Anderson & Sherrerd, an investment management firm that was acquired by Morgan Stanley in 1996.

Mr. Worley holds a B.S. degree from the University of Tennessee and pursued graduate studies in economics at the University of Texas.

The address of each Trustee is One Post Office Square, Boston, MA 02109.

As of December 31, 2008, there were 103 Putnam funds. All Trustees serve as Trustees of all Putnam funds.

Each Trustee serves for an indefinite term, until his or her resignation, retirement at age 72, death, or removal.

* Trustee who is an“interested person” (as defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940) of the fund, Putnam Management, and/or Putnam Retail Management. Mr. Reynolds is President and Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments. Mr. Haldeman is the President of your fund and each of the other Putnam funds and Chairman of Putnam Investment Management, LLC, and prior to July 2008 was President and Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments.

34

PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST

Officers of the Putnam Funds
December 31, 2008

In addition to Charles E. Haldeman, Jr., the other officers of the fund are shown below:

Charles E. Porter (Born 1938)	Francis J. McNamara, III (Born 1955)
Executive Vice President, Principal Executive Officer, Associate	Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Treasurer, and Compliance Liaison	Since 2004
Since 1989
	Senior Managing Director, Putnam Investments, Putnam Manage-
Jonathan S. Horwitz (Born 1955)	ment and Putnam Retail Management. Prior to 2004, General
Senior Vice President and Treasurer	Counsel, State Street Research & Management Company
Since 2004
	Robert R. Leveille (Born 1969)
Prior to 2004, Managing Director, Putnam Investments	Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer
	Since 2007
Steven D. Krichmar (Born 1958)
Vice President and Principal Financial Officer	Managing Director, Putnam Investments, Putnam Management,
Since 2002	and Putnam Retail Management. Prior to 2004, member of Bell
	Boyd & Lloyd LLC. Prior to 2003, Vice President and Senior
Senior Managing Director, Putnam Investments	Counsel, Liberty Funds Group LLC
Janet C. Smith (Born 1965)	Mark C. Trenchard (Born 1962)
Vice President, Principal Accounting Officer	Vice President and BSA Compliance Officer
and Assistant Treasurer	Since 2002
Since 2007
	Managing Director, Putnam Investments
Managing Director, Putnam Investments
and Putnam Management	Judith Cohen (Born 1945)
	Vice President, Clerk and Assistant Treasurer
Susan G. Malloy (Born 1957)	Since 1993
Vice President and Assistant Treasurer
Since 2007	Wanda M. McManus (Born 1947)
	Vice President, Senior Associate Treasurer and Assistant Clerk
Managing Director, Putnam Investments	Since 2005
Beth S. Mazor (Born 1958)	Senior Associate Treasurer/Assistant Clerk of Funds
Vice President
Since 2002	Nancy E. Florek (Born 1957)
	Vice President, Assistant Clerk, Assistant Treasurer
Managing Director, Putnam Investments	and Proxy Manager
	Since 2005
James P. Pappas (Born 1953)
Vice President	Manager, Mutual Fund Proxy Voting
Since 2004
Managing Director, Putnam Investments and Putnam Manage-
ment. During 2002, Chief Operating Officer, Atalanta/Sosnoff
Management Corporation

The address of each Officer is One Post Office Square, Boston, MA 02109.

35

Item 2. Code of Ethics:

(a) The fund’s principal executive, financial and accounting officers are employees of Putnam Investment Management, LLC, the Fund's investment manager. As such they are subject to a comprehensive Code of Ethics adopted and administered by Putnam Investments which is designed to protect the interests of the firm and its clients. The Fund has adopted a Code of Ethics which incorporates the Code of Ethics of Putnam Investments with respect to all of its officers and Trustees who are employees of Putnam Investment Management, LLC. For this reason, the Fund has not adopted a separate code of ethics governing its principal executive, financial and accounting officers.

(c) In May 2008, the Code of Ethics of Putnam Investment Management, LLC was updated in its entirety to include the amendments adopted in August 2007 as well as a several additional technical, administrative and non-substantive changes.

Item 3. Audit Committee Financial Expert:

The Funds' Audit and Compliance Committee is comprised solely of Trustees who are "independent" (as such term has been defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") in regulations implementing Section 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (the "Regulations")). The Trustees believe that each of the members of the Audit and Compliance Committee also possess a combination of knowledge and experience with respect to financial accounting matters, as well as other attributes, that qualify them for service on the Committee. In addition, the Trustees have determined that each of Mr. Patterson, Mr. Leibler, Mr. Hill and Mr. Darretta meets the financial literacy requirements of the New York Stock Exchange's rules and qualifies as an "audit committee financial expert" (as such term has been defined by the Regulations) based on their review of his pertinent experience and education. Certain other Trustees, although not on the Audit and Compliance Committee, would also quali fy as "audit committee financial experts." The SEC has stated that the designation or identification of a person as an audit committee financial expert pursuant to this Item 3 of Form N-CSR does not impose on such person any duties, obligations or liability that are greater than the duties, obligations and liability imposed on such person as a member of the Audit and Compliance Committee and the Board of Trustees in the absence of such designation or identification.

Item 4. Principal Accountant Fees and Services:

The following table presents fees billed in each of the last two fiscal years for services rendered to the fund by the fund’s independent auditor:

Fiscal		Audit-
year	Audit	Related	Tax	All Other
ended	Fees	Fees	Fees	Fees
December 31, 2008	$88,885	$--	$10,669	$1,081*
December 31, 2007	$77,760	$147	$9,254	$682*

* Includes fees of $1,081 and $682 billed by the fund’s independent auditor to the fund for procedures necessitated by regulatory and litigation matters for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2007, respectively. These fees were reimbursed to the fund by Putnam Investment Management, LLC (“Putnam Management”).

For the fiscal years ended December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2007, the fund’s independent auditor billed aggregate non-audit fees in the amounts of $183,296 and $85,712 respectively, to the fund, Putnam Management and any entity controlling, controlled by or under common control with Putnam Management that provides ongoing services to the fund.

Audit Fees represent fees billed for the fund's last two fiscal years relating to the audit and review of the financial statements included in annual reports and registration statements, and other services that are normally provided in connection with statutory and regulatory filings or engagements.

Audit-Related Fees represent fees billed in the fund’s last two fiscal years for services traditionally performed by the fund’s auditor, including accounting consultation for proposed transactions or concerning financial accounting and reporting standards and other audit or attest services not required by statute or regulation.

Tax Fees represent fees billed in the fund’s last two fiscal years for tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice services. Tax planning and tax advice services include assistance with tax audits, employee benefit plans and requests for rulings or technical advice from taxing authorities.

All Other Fees represent fees billed for services relating to an analysis of the proposed market timing distribution.

Pre-Approval Policies of the Audit and Compliance Committee. The Audit and Compliance Committee of the Putnam funds has determined that, as a matter of policy, all work performed for the funds by the funds’ independent auditors will be pre-approved by the Committee itself and thus will generally not be subject to pre-approval procedures.

The Audit and Compliance Committee also has adopted a policy to pre-approve the engagement by Putnam Management and certain of its affiliates of the funds’ independent auditors, even in circumstances where pre-approval is not required by applicable law. Any such requests by Putnam Management or certain of its affiliates are typically submitted in writing to the Committee and explain, among other things, the nature of the proposed engagement, the estimated fees, and why this work should be performed by that particular audit firm as opposed to another one. In reviewing such requests, the Committee considers, among other things, whether the provision of such services by the audit firm are compatible with the independence of the audit firm.

The following table presents fees billed by the fund’s independent auditor for services required to be approved pursuant to paragraph (c)(7)(ii) of Rule 2-01 of Regulation S-X.

Fiscal	Audit-		All	Total
year	Related	Tax	Other	Non-Audit
ended	Fees	Fees	Fees	Fees
December 31,  2008	$ -	$ 73,000	$ -	$ -
December 31,  2007	$ -	$ 21,129	$ -	$ -

Item 5. Audit Committee of Listed Registrants

Not applicable

Item 6. Schedule of Investments:

The registrant’s schedule of investments in unaffiliated issuers is included in the report to shareholders in Item 1 above.

Item 7. Disclosure of Proxy Voting Policies and Procedures For Closed-End Management Investment Companies:

Not applicable

Item 8. Portfolio Managers of Closed-End Investment Companies

Not Applicable

Item 9. Purchases of Equity Securities by Closed-End Management Investment Companies and Affiliated Purchasers:

Not applicable

Item 10. Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders:

Not applicable

Item 11. Controls and Procedures:

(a) The registrant's principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded, based on their evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of the registrant's disclosure controls and procedures as of a date within 90 days of the filing date of this report, that the design and operation of such procedures are generally effective to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by the registrant in this report is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Commission's rules and forms.

(b) Changes in internal control over financial reporting: Not applicable

Item 12. Exhibits:

(a)(1) The Code of Ethics of The Putnam Funds, which incorporates the Code of Ethics of Putnam Investments, is filed herewith.

(a)(2) Separate certifications for the principal executive officer and principal financial officer of the registrant as required by Rule 30a-2(a) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, are filed herewith.

(b) The certifications required by Rule 30a-2(b) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, are filed herewith.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Putnam Variable Trust

By (Signature and Title):

/s/Janet C. Smith
Janet C. Smith
Principal Accounting Officer

Date: February 27, 2009

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

By (Signature and Title):

/s/Charles E. Porter
Charles E. Porter
Principal Executive Officer

Date: February 27, 2009

By (Signature and Title):

/s/Steven D. Krichmar
Steven D. Krichmar
Principal Financial Officer

Date: February 27, 2009

EX-99.CERT

Certifications

I, Charles E. Porter, the Principal Executive Officer of the funds listed on Attachment A, certify that:

1. I have reviewed each report on Form N-CSR of the funds listed on Attachment A:

2. Based on my knowledge, each report does not contain any untrue statements of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by each report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in each report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations, changes in net assets, and cash flows (if the financial statements are required to include a statement of cash flows) of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in each report;

4. The registrant's other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 30a-3(c) under the Investment Company Act of 1940) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 30a-3(d) under the Investment Company Act of 1940) for the registrant and have:

a) designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which each report is being prepared;

b) designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

c) evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of a date within 90 days prior to the filing date of each report based on such evaluation; and

d) disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have disclosed to each registrant's auditors and the audit committee of each registrant's board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

a) all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect each registrant's ability to record, process, summarize, and report financial information; and

b) any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in each registrant's internal control over financial reporting.

Date: February 27, 2009

/s/ Charles E. Porter
_______________________
Charles E. Porter
Principal Executive Officer

Certifications

I, Steven D. Krichmar, the Principal Financial Officer of the funds listed on Attachment A, certify that:

1. I have reviewed each report on Form N-CSR of the funds listed on Attachment A:

2. Based on my knowledge, each report does not contain any untrue statements of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by each report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in each report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations, changes in net assets, and cash flows (if the financial statements are required to include a statement of cash flows) of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in each report;

4. The registrant's other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 30a-3(c) under the Investment Company Act of 1940) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 30a-3(d) under the Investment Company Act of 1940) for the registrant and have:

a) designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which each report is being prepared;

b) designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

c) evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of a date within 90 days prior to the filing date of each report based on such evaluation; and

d) disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have disclosed to each registrant's auditors and the audit committee of each registrant's board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

a) all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect each registrant's ability to record, process, summarize, and report financial information; and

b) any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in each registrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

Date: February 27, 2009

/s/ Steven D. Krichmar
_______________________
Steven D. Krichmar
Principal Financial Officer

Attachment A 

N-CSR 

December 31, 2008 

Putnam Europe Equity Fund 

Putnam International Equity Fund 

Putnam New Opportunities Fund 

Putnam Small Cap Growth Fund 

Putnam International Growth & Income Fund 

Putnam Variable Trust 

Putnam VT American Government Income Fund 

Putnam VT Discovery Growth Fund 

Putnam VT Diversified Income Fund 

Putnam VT Equity Income Fund 

Putnam VT The George Putnam Fund of Boston 

Putnam VT Global Asset Allocation Fund 

Putnam VT Global Equity Fund 

Putnam VT Global Health Care Fund 

Putnam VT Global Utilities Fund 

Putnam VT Growth and Income Fund 

Putnam VT Growth Opportunities Fund 

Putnam VT High Yield Fund 

Putnam VT Income Fund 

Putnam VT International Equity Fund 

Putnam VT International Growth and Income Fund 

Putnam VT International New Opportunities Fund 

Putnam VT Investors Fund 

Putnam VT Money Market Fund 

Putnam VT New Opportunities Fund 

Putnam VT New Value Fund 

Putnam VT Research Fund 

Putnam VT Small Cap Value Fund 

Putnam VT Vista Fund 

Putnam VT Voyager Fund 

EX-99.906 CERT

Section 906 Certifications

I, Charles E. Porter, the Principal Executive Officer of the Funds listed on Attachment A, certify that, to my knowledge:

1. The form N-CSR of the Funds listed on Attachment A for the period ended December 31, 2008 fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and

2. The information contained in the Form N-CSR of the Funds listed on Attachment A for the period ended December 31, 2008 fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the Funds listed on Attachment A.

Date: February 27, 2009

/s/ Charles E. Porter
______________________
Charles E. Porter
Principal Executive Officer

Section 906 Certifications

I, Steven D. Krichmar, the Principal Financial Officer of the Funds listed on Attachment A, certify that, to my knowledge:

1. The form N-CSR of the Funds listed on Attachment A for the period ended December 31, 2008 fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and

2. The information contained in the Form N-CSR of the Funds listed on Attachment A for the period ended December 31, 2008 fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the Funds listed on Attachment A.

Date: February 27, 2009

/s/ Steven D. Krichmar
______________________
Steven D. Krichmar

Principal Financial Officer

Attachment A 

N-CSR 

December 31, 2008 

Putnam Europe Equity Fund 

Putnam International Equity Fund 

Putnam New Opportunities Fund 

Putnam Small Cap Growth Fund 

Putnam International Growth & Income Fund 

Putnam Variable Trust 

Putnam VT American Government Income Fund 

Putnam VT Discovery Growth Fund 

Putnam VT Diversified Income Fund 

Putnam VT Equity Income Fund 

Putnam VT The George Putnam Fund of Boston 

Putnam VT Global Asset Allocation Fund 

Putnam VT Global Equity Fund 

Putnam VT Global Health Care Fund 

Putnam VT Global Utilities Fund 

Putnam VT Growth and Income Fund 

Putnam VT Growth Opportunities Fund 

Putnam VT High Yield Fund 

Putnam VT Income Fund 

Putnam VT International Equity Fund 

Putnam VT International Growth and Income Fund 

Putnam VT International New Opportunities Fund 

Putnam VT Investors Fund 

Putnam VT Money Market Fund 

Putnam VT New Opportunities Fund 

Putnam VT New Value Fund 

Putnam VT Research Fund 

Putnam VT Small Cap Value Fund 

Putnam VT Vista Fund 

Putnam VT Voyager Fund 

EX-99.CODE ETH

   a_nf69mod5.htm

EX-99.CODE ETH

working@PUTNAM MAY  2008 

Putnam’s
Code of Ethics

Graphic Omitted: Portrait of Justice Samuel Putnam

Dear Putnam Employee,

Putnam’s Code of Ethics is an essential component of the “fiduciary mindset” and of our commitment to the maintenance of the highest professional standards. Taking care of other people’s money is a serious responsibility, and we need to ensure that our clients’ interests come first. Firms with a strong fiduciary culture are attractive to clients who are looking for superior money management, and Putnam’s Code is designed to ensure that Putnam preserves that trust.

The rules reflected in the Code are good business practices and were not created simply to meet regulatory standards. If, from time to time, the rules seem burdensome, I ask you to put yourself in the place of our shareholders and clients, who have entrusted us to manage their assets so that they may pursue the goals of saving for retirement or funding their children’s education.

If you have any questions or concerns at any time, however, I encourage you to contact one of the members of our Code of Ethics staff in the Legal and Compliance Department.

Graphic Omitted: Signature of Ed Haldeman

Ed Haldeman
President and Chief Executive Officer

Table of Contents
Code of Ethics Overview	1
Putnam’s Code of Ethics	4
Definitions	5
Section I — Personal Securities Rules for All Employees	8
A. Pre-clearance	8
Rule 1: Pre-clearance Requirements	8
Rule 2: Personal Trading Assistant (PTA) System and Restricted List	8
Rule 3: Marsh & McLennan (MMC) securities	11
B. Prohibited Transactions	12
Rule 1: Short-Selling Prohibition	12
Rule 2: Initial Public Offerings Prohibition	12
Rule 3: Private Placement Pre-approval Requirements	13
Rule 4: Trading with Material Non-public Information	13
Rule 5: No Personal Trading with Client Portfolios	13
Rule 6: Holding Putnam Mutual Fund Shares	14
Rule 7: Putnam Mutual Fund Employee Restrictions	15
Rule 8: Special Orders	16
Rule 9: Excessive Trading	16
Rule 10: Spread Betting	17
C. Discouraged Transaction	17
Rule 1: Naked Options	17
D. Exempted Transactions	17
Rule 1: Involuntary Transactions	17
Rule 2: Special Exemptions	18
Section II — Additional Special Rules for Personal Securities Transactions	19
A. Access Persons and Certain Investment Professionals	19
Rule 1: 90-Day Short-Term Rule	19
B. Certain Investment Professionals	19
Rule 2: 7-Day Rule	19
Rule 3: Blackout Rule	20
Rule 4: Contra-Trading Rule	21
Rule 5: No Personal Benefit	21
Section III — General Rules for All Employees	23
Rule 1: Compliance with All Laws, Regulations, and Policies	23
Rule 2: Conflicts of Interest	23
Rule 3: Gifts and Entertainment Policy	23
Rule 4: Anti-bribery/Kickback Policy	25
Rule 5: Political Activities, Contributions, Solicitations, and Lobbying Policy	26
Rule 6: Confidentiality of Putnam Business Information	27
Rule 7: Positions Outside Putnam	27
Rule 8: Role as Trustee or Fiduciary Outside of Putnam Investments	28
Rule 9: Investment Clubs	28
Rule 10: Business Negotiations for Putnam Investments	28
Rule 11: Accurate Records	29
Rule 12: Family Members’ Conflict Policy	29
Rule 13: Affiliated Entities	29

Rule 14: Computer Systems and Network Use Policy	30
Rule 15: CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct	31
Rule 16: Privacy Policy	31
Rule 17: Anti- money Laundering Policy	32
Rule 18: Record Retention	32
Section IV — Reporting Requirements	33
Reporting of Personal Securities Transactions	33
Rule 1: Broker Confirmations and Statements	33
Rule 2: Access Person — Quarterly Transaction Report	34
Rule 3: Access Person — Initial/Annual Holdings Report	34
Rule 4: Certifications	34
Rule 5: Positions Outside Putnam	34
Rule 6: Business Ethics	34
Rule 7: Ombudsman	35
Section V — Education Requirements	36
Rule 1: Distribution of Code	36
Rule 2: Annual Training Requirement	36
Section VI — Compliance and Appeal Procedures	37
Section VII — Sanctions	39
Appendix A — Insider Trading Prohibitions Policy Statement	40
Appendix A — Definitions: Insider Trading	41
Appendix A — Section I: Rules Concerning Inside Information	42
Rule 1: Inside Information	42
Rule 2: Material Non-public Information	42
Rule 3: Reporting of Material Non-public Information	42
Appendix A — Section II: Overview of Insider Trading	44
Appendix B — Policy Statement Regarding Employee Trades in Shares of Putnam Closed-End
Funds	48
Appendix C — Contra- Trading Rule Clearance Form	49
Appendix D — CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct	50
Appendix E — Inducement Policy for Putnam Investments Limited (PIL) Employees	54

Code of Ethics Overview

This overview of Putnam’s Code of Ethics is not intended to substitute for a careful reading of the complete document. As a condition of continued employment, every Putnam employee is required to read, understand, and comply with all of the provisions of the Code of Ethics. Additionally, employees are expected to comply with the policies and procedures contained within the Putnam Employee Handbook, which is available online via Putnam’s intranet home page at http://intranet .

It is the personal responsibility of every Putnam employee to avoid any conduct that could create a conflict, or even the appearance of a conflict, with our fund shareholders or other clients, or do anything that could damage or erode the trust our clients place in Putnam and its employees. This is the spirit of the Code of Ethics. In accepting employment at Putnam, every employee accepts the absolute obligation to comply with the letter and the spirit of the Code of Ethics. Failure to comply with the spirit of the Code of Ethics is just as much a violation of the Code as failure to comply with the written rules of the Code.

The rules of the Code cover activities, including personal securities transactions, of Putnam employees, certain family members of employees, and entities (such as corporations, trusts, or partnerships) that employees may be deemed to control or influence.

Sanctions will be imposed for violations of the Code of Ethics. Sanctions may include monetary fines, bans on personal trading, reductions in salary increases or bonuses, disgorgement of trading profits, suspension of employment, and termination of employment. The proceeds resulting from monetary sanctions will be given to a charity chosen by the Code of Ethics Officer.

Insider trading

Putnam employees are forbidden to buy or sell any security while either Putnam or the employee is in possession of material non-public information (inside information) concerning the security or the issuer. A violation of Putnam’s insider trading policies may result in criminal and civil penalties, including imprisonment, disgorgement of profits, and substantial fines. An employee aware of or in possession of inside information must report it immediately to the Code of Ethics Officer. (See Appendix A: Insider Trading Prohibitions Policy Statement.)

Conflicts of interest

The Code of Ethics imposes limits on activities of Putnam employees where the activity may conflict with the interests of Putnam or its clients. These include limits on the receipt and solicitation of gifts and on service as a fiduciary for a person or entity outside of Putnam. For example, Putnam employees generally may not accept gifts over $100 in total value in a calendar year from any entity, or any supplier of goods or services to Putnam. In addition, a Putnam employee may not serve as a director of any corporation or other entity without prior approval of the Code of Ethics Officer.

Confidentiality

Information about Putnam clients and Putnam investment activity and research is proprietary and confidential and may not be disclosed or used by any Putnam employee outside Putnam without a valid business purpose.

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Putnam mutual funds

All employees and certain family members are subject to a minimum 90-day holding period for shares in Putnam’s open-end mutual funds. This restriction does not apply to Putnam’s Stable Value or money market funds. Except in limited circumstances, all employees must hold Putnam open-end fund shares in accounts at Putnam.

Portfolio managers and others with access to investment information (“Access Persons”) are subject to a minimum one-year holding period for holding Putnam open-end fund shares.

Personal securities trading

Putnam employees may not buy or sell any security for their own account without clearing the proposed transaction in advance. Clearance is facilitated through the Personal Trading Assistant (PTA), the online pre-clearance system for equity securities, and directly with the Code of Ethics Administrator for fixed-income securities and transactions in Putnam closed-end funds. Certain securities are exempted from this pre-clearance requirement (e.g., shares of open-end (not closed-end) mutual funds).

Putnam employees may not buy any securities in an initial public offering or in a private placement, except in limited circumstances when prior written authorization is obtained.

Clearance must be obtained in advance, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the day of the trade. A clearance is valid only for the day it is obtained. Putnam employees are strongly discouraged from engaging in excessive trading for their personal accounts. Employees are prohibited from making more than 10 trades in individual securities each calendar quarter.

Short selling

Putnam employees are prohibited from short selling any security, whether or not it is held in a Putnam client portfolio, although short selling against broad market indexes and “against the box” is permitted. Note, however, that short selling “against the box” or otherwise hedging an investment in shares of Power Corporation of Canada, Power Financial Corporation, and Great-West Lifeco Inc. stock is prohibited.

Confirmations of trading and periodic account statements

All Putnam employees must have their brokers send copies of confirmations and statements of personal securities transactions to the Code of Ethics Administrator. This also applies to members of the immediate family who share the same household as the employee or for whom the employee has investment discretion. Employees must contact the Code of Ethics Administrator to (a) obtain an authorization [407] letter, (b) provide instructions to the broker in establishing a personal brokerage account, and (c) enter a broker account profile into PTA.

Quarterly and annual reporting

Employees will be notified if the following requirements apply. Upon commencement of employment and thereafter on an annual basis, Access Persons must disclose in the PTA system all personal securities holdings (even those to which pre-clearance may not apply). On a quarterly basis, Access Persons must disclose all their securities transactions in Personal Trading Assistant (PTA) within 15 days after the end of the quarter.

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Personal securities transactions by Access Persons and certain investment professionals

The Code imposes several special restrictions on personal securities transactions by Access Persons and certain investment professionals, which are summarized as follows. (Refer to Section II for details):

• 90-Day Short-Term Rule. No Access Person shall purchase and then sell at a profit, or sell and then repurchase at a lower price, any security or related derivative security, for example, options, within 90 calendar days.

• 7-Day Rule. Before a portfolio manager places an order to buy a security for any portfolio he manages, he must sell from his personal account any such security or related derivative security purchased within the preceding seven calendar days, and disgorge any profit from the sale.

• Blackout Rule. No portfolio manager may sell any security or related derivative security for her personal account until seven calendar days after the most recent purchase of that security or related derivative security for any portfolio she manages. No portfolio manager may buy any security or related derivative security for her personal account until seven calendar days after the most recent sale of that security or related derivative security by any portfolio she manages.

Analysts are also subject to the 7-Day and Blackout rules in connection with a recommendation to buy/outperform or sell/underperform a security.

• Contra-Trading Rule. No portfolio manager may sell out of her personal account any security or related derivative security that is held in any portfolio she manages unless she has received the written approval of an appropriate CIO and the Code of Ethics Officer.

• No portfolio manager may cause a Putnam client to take action for the manager’s personal benefit.

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Putnam’s Code of Ethics

Putnam Investments is required by law to adopt a Code of Ethics. The purposes of the law are to ensure that companies and their employees comply with all applicable laws and to prevent abuses in the investment advisory business that can arise when conflicts of interest exist between the employees of an investment advisor and its clients. By adopting and enforcing a Code of Ethics, we strengthen the trust and confidence reposed in us by demonstrating that at Putnam, client interests come first.

The Code that follows represents a balancing of important interests. On the one hand, as a registered investment advisor, Putnam owes a duty of undivided loyalty to its clients, and must avoid even the appearance of a conflict that might be perceived as abusing the trust they have placed in Putnam. On the other hand, Putnam does not want to prevent conscientious professionals from investing for their own account where conflicts do not exist or that are immaterial to investment decisions affecting Putnam clients.

When conflicting interests cannot be reconciled, the Code makes clear that, first and foremost, Putnam employees owe a fiduciary duty to Putnam clients. In most cases, this means that the affected employee will be required to forego conflicting personal securities transactions. In some cases, personal investments will be permitted, but only in a manner, which, because of the circumstances and applicable controls, cannot reasonably be perceived as adversely affecting Putnam client portfolios or taking unfair advantage of the relationship Putnam employees have to Putnam clients.

The Code contains specific rules prohibiting defined types of conflicts. Because every potential conflict cannot be anticipated, the Code also contains general provisions prohibiting conflict situations. In view of these general provisions, it is critical that any individual who is in doubt about the applicability of the Code in a given situation seeks a determination from the Code of Ethics Officer about the propriety of the conduct in advance. The procedures for obtaining such a determination are described in Section VI of the Code.

It is critical that the Code be strictly observed. Not only will adherence to the Code ensure that Putnam renders the best possible service to its clients, it will help to ensure that no individual is liable for violations of law.

It should be emphasized that adherence to this policy is a fundamental condition of employment at Putnam. Every employee is expected to adhere to the requirements of this Code of Ethics despite any inconvenience that may be involved. Any employee failing to do so may be subject to disciplinary action, including financial penalties and termination of employment, as determined by the Code of Ethics Officer, the Code of Ethics Oversight Committee, or the Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments.

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Definitions

The words below are defined specifically for the purpose of Putnam’s Code of Ethics.

Access Persons

Each employee will be informed if he or she is considered an Access Person. The Code of Ethics Officer maintains a list of all Access Persons, categorized as follows:

• All employees of Putnam’s Investment Management Division

• Employees of the Operations and Administration Division within the following specific groups and departments:

o Fund Administration Group

o Global Operations Strategy Group

o Fund Accounting Oversight Group

o Custody Oversight Group

o Alternative Investments Department (in the Global Client Operations & Services Group)

• All employees in the Market Data Services Group

• Senior Managing Directors and Managing Directors in:

o Mutual Fund Shareholder Services Group

o Fund Accounting Oversight & Control Group

o Global Client Operations, Services & Custody Group

o Global Distribution and Marketing Division

o Corporate Development & Global Distribution Services Division

• All members of Putnam’s Executive Board

• All directors and employees of Putnam Investments Limited (PIL) and those based in Europe

• All directors and officers of a registered investment advisor affiliate, e.g., Putnam Investment Management, LLC (PIM), or The Putnam Advisory Company, LLC (PAC)

• All employees who have access to My Putnam (unless access is limited to the Wall Street Journal via Factiva )

• Employees who have systems access to non-public information about any client’s purchase or sale of securities or to information regarding recommendations with respect to such purchases or sales

• Employees who have access to non-public information regarding the portfolio holdings of any Putnam-advised or sub-advised mutual fund

• Others as defined by the Legal and Compliance Department

Closed-end fund A fund with a fixed number of shares outstanding, and that does not redeem shares the way a typical mutual fund does. Closed-end funds typically trade like stocks on exchange.

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Code of Ethics Administrator The individual designated by the Code of Ethics Officer to assume responsibility for day-to-day, nondiscretionary administration of this Code. The current Code of Ethics Administrator is Laura Rose, who can be reached at extension 11104.

Code of Ethics Officer The Putnam officer who has been assigned the responsibility of enforcing and interpreting this Code. The Code of Ethics Officer shall be the Chief Compliance Officer or such other person as is designated by the Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments. If the Code of Ethics Officer is unavailable, the Deputy Code of Ethics Officer shall act in his stead. The Code of Ethics Officer is Bob Leveille. The Deputy Code of Ethics Officer is Kathleen Griffin.

Code of Ethics Oversight Committee Has oversight responsibility for administering the Code of Ethics. Members include the Code of Ethics Officer and other members of Putnam’s senior management approved by the Chief Executive Officer of Putnam.

Discretionary Account An account for which the holder gives his/her broker or investment advisor (but not an immediate family member) complete authority to make management decisions to buy and sell securities (also called controlled account or managed account).

Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) A fund that tracks an index, but can be traded like a stock. ETFs always bundle together the securities that are in an index. Examples include (but are not limited to): SPDRs, WEBs, QQQQs, iShares, and HLDRs.

NOTE:

Excluded from pre-clearance but not from reporting requirements are: exchange-traded index funds (ETFs) containing a portfolio of securities of 25 or more issuers (e.g., SPDRs, WEBs, QQQQs, iShares, and HLDRs), and any option on a broad-based market index or an exchange-traded futures contract or option. Country funds, as well as other funds that are not tied to an index, are considered closed-end funds and are subject to pre-clearance and reporting requirements. (See Section I.A, Rule 1: Pre-clearance Requirements for more information.)

Immediate family Spouse, domestic partner, minor children, or other relatives living in the same household as the Putnam employee. All pre-clearance and reporting rules apply to “immediate family members.”

Narrow-based derivative A future, swap, put or call option, or similar derivative instrument whose return is determined by reference to fewer than 25 underlying issuers. Single stock futures and ETFs based on less than 25 issuers are included.

Personal Trading Assistant (PTA) The Personal Trading Assistant (PTA) is an Internet application designed for employees to manage personal trading activities, such as pre-clearance, reporting, and certifications, in accordance with regulatory requirements and Putnam’s Code of Ethics.

Policy statements The Insider Trading Prohibitions Policy Statement is attached to the Code as Appendix A and the Policy Statement Regarding Employee Trades in Shares of Putnam Closed-End Funds is attached to the Code as Appendix B.

Private placement Any offering of a security not offered to the public and not requiring registration with the relevant securities authorities.

Purchase or sale of a security Any acquisition or transfer of any interest in the security for direct or indirect consideration; this includes the writing of an option. This definition includes any transfer of a security by an employee as a gift to an individual or a charity.

Putnam Any or all of Putnam Investments, LLC and its subsidiaries, any one of which shall be a Putnam company.

Putnam client Any of the Putnam mutual funds, or any advisor, trust, or other client for whom Putnam manages money.

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Putnam employee (or employee) Any employee of Putnam.

Restricted list The list established in accordance with Rule 1 of Section I.A.

Security The following instruments are defined as “securities” and require pre-clearance:

• Any type or class of equity or debt security, e.g., corporate or municipal bonds

• Any rights relating to a security, such as warrants and convertible securities

• Closed-end funds

• Any narrow-based derivative, e.g., a put or call option on a single security

Pre-clearance and reporting is not required (unless otherwise noted) for:

• Open-end mutual funds

• Currencies, Treasuries (T-bills), and direct and indirect obligations of the U.S. government and its agencies

• Direct and indirect obligations of any member country in the Organization for Economic CoOperation and Development (OECD), commercial paper, certificates of deposit (CDs), repurchase agreements, bankers’ acceptances, and other money market instruments

Short selling The sale of a security that the investor does not own in order to take advantage of an anticipated decline in the price of the security. In order to sell short, the investor must borrow the security from his broker in order to make delivery to the buyer.

Short selling against the box A short sale where the investor owns the security, but does not want to use the shares for delivery, so he borrows them from the brokerage firm.

Transaction for a personal account Securities transactions: (a) for the personal account of any employee; (b) for the account of a member of the immediate family of any employee; (c) for the account of a partnership in which a Putnam employee or immediate family member is a general partner or a partner with investment discretion; (d) for the account of a trust in which a Putnam employee or immediate family member is a trustee with investment discretion; (e) for the account of a closely held corporation in which a Putnam employee or immediate family member holds shares and for which he has investment discretion; and (f ) for any account other than a Putnam client account, which receives investment advice of any sort from the employee or immediate family member, or as to which the employee or immediate family member has investment discretion.

Rule of construction regarding time periods Unless the context indicates otherwise, time periods used in the Code of Ethics shall be measured inclusively, i.e., beginning on the date from which the measurement is made.

EXCEPTIONS

Unless the context indicates otherwise, there will be no exceptions to the rules.

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Section I — Personal Securities Rules for All Employees

A. Pre-clearance

Rule 1: Pre-clearance Requirements

Pre-clearance is required for the following securities:

• Any type or class of equity or debt security, including corporate and municipal bonds

• Stock of Power Corporation of Canada, Power Financial Corporation, and Great-West Lifeco Inc.

• Any rights relating to a security, such as warrants and convertible securities

• Closed-end funds – including Putnam closed-end funds. Country funds, as well as other funds that are not tied to an index, are considered closed-end funds and are subject to pre-clearance and reporting requirements, e.g., India Fund (IFN), Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific Fund (APF), and Central Europe and Russia Fund (CEE). Certain closed-end funds that sometimes are referred to as closed-end ETFs, such as Western Asset Emerging (ESD) or Eaton Vance Muni Trust (EVN), are also subject to pre-clearance and reporting requirements.

• Any narrow-based derivative, e.g., a put or call option on a single security

• Any security donated as a gift to an individual or a charity

• Marsh & McLennan (MMC) securities

Pre-clearance is not required for:

• Open-end mutual funds

• Currencies, Treasuries (T-bills), and direct and indirect obligations of the U.S. government and its agencies

• Direct and indirect obligations of any member of the country of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), commercial paper, certificates of deposit (CDs), repurchase agreements, bankers’ acceptances, and other money market instruments

• Application for a loan and/or withdrawals of MMC stock from your 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan

The following are excluded from pre-clearance but not from reporting requirements:

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) containing a portfolio of securities of 25 or more issuers (e.g., SPDRs, WEBs, QQQQs, iShares, and HLDRs), and any option on a broad-based market index or an exchange-traded futures contract or option thereon.

Rule 2: Personal Trading Assistant (PTA) System and Restricted List

No Putnam employee shall purchase or sell for his personal account any security requiring pre-clearance under Rule 1 without prior clearance obtained through procedures set forth by the Code of Ethics Officer. Equity securities are pre-cleared through the PTA pre-clearance system (on Putnam’s intranet home page at http://intranet ). Fixed-income securities must be pre-cleared by calling the Code of Ethics Administrator. There are special rules for trading in Putnam closed-end funds. (See Appendix B.) Subject to the limited exceptions below, no clearance will be granted for securities appearing on the Restricted List. Securities will be placed on the Restricted List in the following circumstances:

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(a) When orders to purchase or sell such security have been entered for any Putnam client or the security is being actively considered for purchase for any Putnam client, unless the security is a non-convertible investment-grade (rated at least BBB by S&P or Baa by Moody’s) fixed-income investment;

(b) When such a security is a voting security of a corporation in the banking, savings and loan, insurance, communications, public utilities, or gaming (i.e., casinos) industries, if holdings of Putnam clients in that corporation exceed 7%;

(c) When, in the judgment of the Code of Ethics Officer, other circumstances warrant restricting personal transactions of Putnam employees in a particular security; and

(d) When required under the Policy Statement Concerning Insider Trading Prohibitions. (See Appendix A.)

IMPLEMENTATION

An employee wishing to trade any equity securities for his personal account shall first obtain clearance through the Personal Trading Assistant (PTA) system. The system may be accessed online via Putnam’s intranet home page at http://intranet . Employees may pre-clear securities between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. ET. Requests to make personal securities transactions may not be made using the system or presented to the Code of Ethics Administrator before 9:00 a.m. or after 4:00 p.m. ET.

Pre-clearance must be made by calling the Code of Ethics Administrator for a fixed-income investment (municipal and corporate bonds, including non-convertible investment-grade bonds rated BBB by S&P or Baa by Moody’s).

The PTA system will inform the employee whether the security may be traded and whether trading in the security is only eligible up to the limits under the “Large-/Mid-Cap Exemption.” The response of the pre-clearance system as to whether a security appears on the Restricted List and, if so, whether it is eligible for the exceptions set forth after this Rule shall be final, unless the employee appeals to the Code of Ethics Officer, using the procedure described in Section VI, regarding the request to trade a particular security.

A clearance is only valid for trading on the day it is obtained. Trades in any security by employees in Asian or European offices of Putnam or trades by any employee in securities listed on Asian or European stock exchanges, however, may be executed within one business day after pre-clearance is obtained.

If a security is not on the Restricted List, other classes of securities of the same issuer (e.g., preferred or convertible preferred stock) may be on the Restricted List. It is the employee’s responsibility to identify with particularity the class of securities for which permission is being sought for a personal investment.

If the PTA system does not recognize a security, or if an employee is unable to use the system or has any questions with respect to the system or pre-clearance, the employee may consult the Code of Ethics Administrator. The Code of Ethics Administrator shall not have authority to answer any questions about a security other than whether trading is permitted. The response of the Code of Ethics Administrator as to whether a security appears on the Restricted List and, if so, whether it is eligible for any applicable exceptions set forth after this Rule shall be final, unless the employee appeals to the Code of Ethics Officer, using the procedure described in Section VI, regarding the request to trade a particular security.

EXCEPTIONS

A. Large-/Mid-Cap Exemption. If a security appearing on the Restricted List is an equity security for which the issuer has a market capitalization (defined as outstanding shares multiplied by current price per share) of over $2 billion, then upon clearance approval, the Putnam employee may not trade more than 1,000 shares of the security for the day.

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B. Pre-clearing Transactions Effected by Share Subscription. Trades of securities made by subscription rather than on an exchange are limited to issuers having a market capitalization of $2 billion or more and are subject to the 1,000 share limit. The following are procedures to comply with Rules 1 and 2 when effecting a purchase or sale of shares by subscription:

• The Putnam employee must pre-clear the trade on the day he or she submits a subscription to the issuer rather than on the actual day of the trade since the actual day of the trade typically will not be known to the employee who submits the subscription. The employee must contact the Code of Ethics Administrator at the time of pre-clearance and will be told whether the purchase is permitted (in the case of a corporation having a market capitalization of $2 billion or more) or not permitted (in the case of a smaller capitalization issuer).

• The subscription for any purchase or sale of shares must be reported on the Access Person’s quarterly personal securities transaction report, noting the trade was accomplished by subscription.

• Because no brokers are involved in the transaction, the confirmation requirement will be waived for these transactions, although the Putnam employee must provide the Legal and Compliance Department with any transaction summaries or statements sent by the issuer.

C. Trades in Approved Discretionary Brokerage Accounts. A transaction does not need to be pre-cleared if it takes place in an account that the Code of Ethics Officer has approved in writing as exempt from the pre-clearance requirement prior to establishing the account. In the sole discretion of the Code of Ethics Officer, accounts that will be considered for exclusion from the pre-clearance requirement are only those for which an employee’s securities broker or investment advisor has complete discretion (a discretionary account).

Employees wishing to seek such an exemption must send a written request to the Code of Ethics Administrator and meet the following conditions: (i) the employee certifies annually in writing that the employee has no influence over the transactions in the discretionary account and is not aware of the transactions in the discretionary account prior to their execution; (ii) the broker or investment advisor certifies annually in writing that the employee has no influence over the transactions in the discretionary account and is not aware of the transactions in the discretionary account prior to their execution; and (iii) each calendar quarter, the broker or investment advisor sends Putnam’s Code of Ethics Administrator copies of each quarterly statement for the discretionary account.

COMMENTS

• Pre-clearance. Subpart (a) of Rule 2 is designed to avoid the conflict of interest that might occur when an employee trades for his personal account a security that currently is being traded or is likely to be traded for a Putnam client. Such conflicts arise, for example, when the trades of an employee might have an impact on the price or availability of a particular security, or when the trades of the client might have an impact on price to the benefit of the employee. Thus, exceptions involve situations where the trade of a Putnam employee is unlikely to have an impact on the market.

• Regulatory Limits. Owing to a variety of federal statutes and regulations in the banking, savings and loan, insurance, communications, public utilities, and gaming industries, it is critical that accounts of Putnam clients do not hold more than 7% of the voting securities of any issuer in those industries. Subpart (b) of this rule limits employees’ personal trades to sales of shares in these areas because of the risk that the personal holdings of Putnam employees may be aggregated with Putnam holdings. Putnam’s so-called 7% rule will allow the regulatory limits to be observed.

• Options. For the purposes of this Code, options are treated like the underlying security. Thus, an employee may not purchase, sell, or “write” option contracts for a security that is on the

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Restricted List. The automatic exercise or assignment of an options contract (the purchase or writing of which was previously pre-cleared) does not have to be pre-cleared. Note, however, that the purchase or sale of securities obtained through the exercise of options must be pre-cleared.

• Involuntary Transactions. Involuntary personal securities transactions are exempted from the Code. Special attention should be paid to this exemption. (See Section I.D.)

• Tender Offers. This Rule does not prohibit an employee from tendering securities from his personal account in response to any and all tender offers, even if Putnam clients are also tendering securities. If tendering a security in response to a “partial tender offer,” an employee must pre-clear the trade on the day she submits instructions to her broker, and she will be prohibited from trading if Putnam clients are also tendering the same security.

• Gifts of Securities. Pre-clearance is required for securities donated as a gift to a charitable organization or to an individual. Employees are required to provide a gift transfer certificate of the transaction (if produced) to the Code of Ethics Administrator along with an account statement reflecting the gift transaction. Employees who receive a security gift must report the gift to the Code of Ethics Administrator who will make the necessary adjustments in PTA. Access Persons must enter the gift as a security holding in PTA and report in their Annual Holdings Report.

Rule 3: Marsh & McLennan (MMC) securities

All employees trading MMC securities must pre-clear the trades in the PTA system. MMC securities include stock, options, and any other securities such as debt. Sales out of the MMC Employee Stock Purchase Plan and transactions in all Putnam and MMC employee benefit and bonus plans, i.e., rebalancing or exchanging out of the 401(k)/Profit Sharing/Bonus Plan, are included in this requirement.

Pre-clearance of MMC is required when, for example, you:

• Sell MMC out of the Stock Purchase Plan

• Exchange MMC shares out of your 401(k)/Profit Sharing/Bonus Plan

• Rebalance your Putnam fund choices, which results in a sale of MMC from your 401(k)/Profit Sharing/Bonus Plan

• Trade in MMC securities in other accounts held outside Putnam Investments

Pre-clearance is not required when you apply for a loan and/or make withdrawals of the stock from your 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan.

COMMENTS

All transactions of MMC require pre-clearance in PTA before you contact Citi Smith Barney to sell shares out of your Stock Purchase Plan. Also, if MMC is one of your choices in the 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan, all exchanges must be cleared. Even though clearance is not required for Putnam mutual funds, if you do not wish to include MMC shares when rebalancing any of your fund choices, which will result in an automatic exchange of your MMC shares, you must remember to exclude MMC shares prior to submitting your changes. If you are investing online, check the box to exclude MMC; or if you are investing by telephone with a Putnam representative, ask to exclude MMC before rebalancing the funds.

Additional MMC-related policies:

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• Transactions in MMC securities that are held in Putnam’s internal plans are not subject to the 90-Day Short-Term Rule (applicable to Access Persons only) or to the holding periods that apply to Putnam mutual funds.

B. Prohibited Transactions

Rule 1: Short-Selling Prohibition

Putnam employees are prohibited from short selling any security in their own account, whether or not the security is held in a Putnam client portfolio. Employees are prohibited from hedging investments made in securities of Power Corporation of Canada, Power Financial Corporation, and Great-West Lifeco Inc.

EXCEPTION

Short selling against broad market indexes (such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ Index, and the S&P 100 and 500 indexes) and short selling against the box are permitted (except that short selling shares of Power Corporation of Canada, Power Financial Corporation, and Great-West Lifeco Inc. against the box is not permitted).

Rule 2: Initial Public Offerings Prohibition

No Putnam employee shall purchase any security for her personal account in an initial public offering. Employees are also restricted from participating in Initial Public Offerings via a Discretionary Account.

EXCEPTION

Pre-existing Status Exception. A Putnam employee shall not be barred by this Rule or by Rule 2(a) of Section I.A. from purchasing securities for her personal account in connection with an initial public offering of securities by a bank or insurance company when the employee’s status as a policyholder or depositor entitles her to purchase securities on terms more favorable than those available to the general public, in connection with the bank’s conversion from mutual or cooperative form to stock form, or the insurance company’s conversion from mutual to stock form, provided that the employee has had the status entitling her to purchase on favorable terms for at least two years. This exception is only available with respect to the value of bank deposits or insurance policies that an employee owns before the announcement of the initial public offering. This exception does not apply, however, if the security app ears on the Restricted List in the circumstances set forth in subparts (b), (c), or (d) of Section I.A., Rule 2.

COMMENTS

• The purpose of this Rule is twofold. First, it is designed to prevent a conflict of interest between Putnam employees and Putnam clients who might be in competition for the same securities in a limited public offering. Second, the Rule is designed to prevent Putnam employees from being subject to undue influence as a result of receiving favors in the form of special allocations of securities in a public offering from broker-dealers who seek to do business with Putnam.

• Purchases of securities in the immediate after-market of an initial public offering are not prohibited, provided they do not constitute violations of other provisions of the Code of Ethics. For example, participation in the immediate after-market as a result of a special allocation from an underwriting group would be prohibited by Section III, Rule 3, concerning gifts and other favors.

• Public offerings subsequent to initial public offerings are not deemed to create the same potential for competition between Putnam employees and Putnam clients because of the pre-existence of a market for the securities.

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Rule 3: Private Placement Pre-approval Requirements

No Putnam employee shall purchase any security for his personal account in a limited private offering or private placement without prior approval of the Code of Ethics Officer. Privately placed limited partnerships and funds such as private equity or hedge funds are specifically included in this Rule.

COMMENTS

• The purpose of this Rule is to prevent a Putnam employee from investing in securities for his own account pursuant to a limited private offering that could compete with or disadvantage Putnam clients, and to eliminate any incentives Putnam employees might have to favor those who can affect access to limited offerings.

• Exemptions to the prohibition will generally not be granted where the proposed investment relates directly or indirectly to investments by a Putnam client, or where individuals involved in the offering (including the issuers, broker, underwriter, placement agent, promoter, fellow investors, and affiliates of the foregoing) have any prior or existing business relationship with Putnam or a Putnam employee, or where the Putnam employee believes that such individuals may expect to have a future business relationship with Putnam or a Putnam employee.

• An exemption may be granted, subject to reviewing all the facts and circumstances, for investments in:

(a) Pooled investment funds, including hedge funds, subject to the condition that an employee investing in a pooled investment fund would have no involvement in the activities or decision-making process of the fund except for financial reports made in the ordinary course of the fund’s business, and subject to the condition that the hedge fund does not invest significantly in registered investment companies.

(b) Private placements where the investment cannot relate, or be expected to relate, directly or indirectly to Putnam or investments by a Putnam client.

• Employees who apply for an exemption will be expected to disclose to the Code of Ethics Officer in writing all facts and relationships relating to the proposed investment.

• Applications to invest in private placements will be reviewed by the Code of Ethics Oversight Committee. This review will take into account, among other factors, the considerations described in the preceding comments.

Rule 4: Trading with Material Non-public Information

No Putnam employee shall purchase or sell any security for her personal account or for any Putnam client account while in possession of material non-public information concerning the security or the issuer. Please read Appendix A, Policy Statement Concerning Insider Trading Prohibitions.

Rule 5: No Personal Trading with Client Portfolios

No Putnam employee shall purchase from or sell to a Putnam client any securities or other property for his personal account, nor engage in any personal transaction to which a Putnam client is known to be a party, or in which the transaction may have a significant relationship to any action taken by a Putnam client.

IMPLEMENTATION

It is the responsibility of every Putnam employee to make inquiry prior to any personal transaction in order to satisfy himself that the requirements of this Rule have been met.

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COMMENT

This Rule is required by federal law. It does not prohibit a Putnam employee from purchasing any shares of an open-end Putnam fund. The policy with respect to employee trading in Putnam closed-end funds is attached as Appendix B.

Rule 6: Holding Putnam Mutual Fund Shares

Putnam employees may not hold shares of Putnam open-end U.S. mutual funds other than through accounts maintained at Putnam. Employees placing purchase orders in shares of Putnam open-end funds must place such orders through Putnam and not through an outside broker or other intermediary. Employees redeeming or exchanging shares of Putnam open-end funds must place those orders through Putnam and not through an outside broker or other intermediary. For transfer instructions, contact a Putnam Preferred Client Services (PCS) representative at 1-800-634-1590.

REMINDER

For purposes of this Rule, “employee” includes:

• Members of the immediate family of a Putnam employee who share the same household as the employee or for whom the Putnam employee has investment discretion (family member);

• Any trust in which a Putnam employee or family member is a trustee with investment discretion and in which such Putnam employee or any family members are collectively beneficiaries;

• Any closely held entity (such as a partnership, limited liability company, or corporation) in which a Putnam employee and his or her family members hold a controlling interest and with respect to which they have investment discretion; and

• Any account (including any retirement, pension, deferred compensation, or similar account) in which a Putnam employee or family member has a substantial economic interest and over which the Putnam employee or family member exercises investment discretion.

COMMENTS

These requirements also apply to:

• Self-directed IRA accounts holding Putnam fund shares;

• Variable annuities and variable insurance contracts, such as Putnam/Hartford Manager, that invest in Putnam Variable Trusts. Employees must designate Putnam Retail Management as the broker of record for all such accounts.

NOTE:

Employees are required to seek permission from the Code of Ethics Officer to hold Putnam funds in variable trusts outside of Putnam.

EXCEPTION

Retirement, pension, deferred compensation, and similar accounts that cannot be legally transferred to Putnam are not subject to the requirement. For example, a spouse of a Putnam employee may have a 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan with her employer that invests in Putnam funds. Employees may also hold Putnam money market funds at Mercer Securities. Any employee who continues to hold shares in open-end Putnam funds outside of Putnam must notify the Code of Ethics Officer in writing of the account information, provide the reason why the account cannot be transferred to Putnam, and arrange for a quarterly statement of transactions in such account to be sent to the Code of Ethics Administrator.

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Rule 7: Putnam Mutual Fund Employee Restrictions

(a) Employees (defined in Rule 6) may not, within a 90-calendar day period, make a purchase followed by a sale or a sale followed by a purchase of shares of the same open-end Putnam mutual fund, even if the transactions occur in different accounts.

(b) Employees who are Access Persons may not, within a one-year period, make a purchase followed by a sale or a sale followed by a purchase of shares of the same open-end Putnam mutual fund or of shares of any U.S. registered mutual fund to which Putnam acts as advisor or sub-advisor, even if the transactions occur in different accounts.

(c) All employees are required to link their immediate family members’ accounts holding Putnam mutual funds to comply with the disclosure requirements. These accounts are also subject to the 90-day and one-year rules. To link these accounts, log on to Putnam’s intranet home page at http://intranet , and select Employee Essentials/Linked Mutual Fund Accounts. You are required to confirm the information and will be prompted to add any accounts that you or your family members have that should be linked, or delink accounts that you or your family members have closed.

COMMENTS

This Rule applies to transactions by a Putnam employee and family members as defined in the Code in any type of account including retail, IRA, variable annuity, and 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan, as well as any deferred compensation accounts, and the restrictions apply across all accounts maintained by an employee and family members:

• An employee who buys shares of an open-end Putnam mutual fund may not sell any shares of the same mutual fund until 90 calendar days have passed, or one year for Access Persons.

• Example: If an employee buys shares of a Putnam fund on Day 1 for a retail account and then sells (by exchange) shares of the same fund for his or her 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan accounts on Day 85, the employee has violated the rule.

• Similarly, an employee who sells shares of an open-end Putnam mutual fund may not buy any shares of the same mutual fund until 90 calendar days have passed, or one year for Access Persons.

• The purpose of these blackout period restrictions is to prevent any market timing or the appearance of any market timing activity.

• This Rule applies to transactions by a Putnam employee and his or her family members as defined in the Code in any type of account including retail, IRA, variable annuity, variable insurance, and 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan, as well as any deferred compensation accounts.

• The minimum sanction for an initial violation of the blackout period will be disgorgement of any profit made on the transaction. Additional sanctions may apply, including termination of employment.

EXCEPTIONS

A. The restrictions do not apply to Putnam’s money market funds and Putnam Stable Value Fund.

B. 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan Contributions and Payroll Deductions: The 90-day or one year restriction is not triggered by the initial allocation of regular employee or employer contributions or forfeitures to an employee’s account under the terms of Putnam employee benefit plans or a Putnam payroll-deduction direct-investment program; later exchanges of these contributions will be subject to either the 90-day or one-year blackout period.

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C. Systematic Programs: The restrictions do not apply with respect to shares sold or acquired as a result of participation in a systematic program for contributions, withdrawals, or exchanges, provided that an election to participate in any such program and the participation dates of the program are not changed more often than quarterly after the program is elected by the employee. Access Persons may elect a quarterly or semiannual rebalancing program although it may only be changed on an annual basis.

D. Employee Benefit Plan Withdrawals and Distributions: No restriction applies with respect to shares sold for withdrawals, loans, or distributions under the terms of Putnam employee benefit plans.

E. Dividends, Distributions, Mergers, and Share Class Conversions: No restriction applies with respect to the acquisition of shares as a result of reinvestment of dividends, distributions, mergers, conversions of share classes, or other similar actions. Subsequent transactions with respect to the shares will be covered.

F. College Savings Program: Redemptions from an employee’s college savings 529 plan to pay for qualified educational expenses for the beneficiary of the account (and redemptions due to death or disability) are exempt from the 90-day and one-year restrictions applicable to Putnam mutual funds. Qualified redemptions include:

• Tuition

• School fees

• Books

• Supplies and equipment required for enrollment

• Room and board

• Death

• Disability

G. Special Situations: In special situations as determined from time to time by Putnam’s Code of Ethics Oversight Committee, exceptions may by granted to the blackout periods as a result of death, disability, or special circumstances (such as personal hardship). Employees may request an exception by submitting a written request to the Code of Ethics Officer.

Rule 8: Special Orders

Good Until Canceled (GTC) Limit Orders are prohibited.

Any order not executed on the day of pre-clearance must be resubmitted for pre-clearance before being executed on a subsequent day. “Good until canceled limit” orders are prohibited because of the potential failure to pre-clear.

EXCEPTION

Same-day limit orders are permitted.

Rule 9: Excessive Trading

Putnam employees are strongly discouraged from engaging in excessive trading for their personal accounts. Employees are prohibited from making more than 10 trades in individual securities in any given quarter. For the purpose of this rule, an employee is prohibited from engaging in more than a total of 10 trades in all accounts the employee may hold (including those accounts held by his immediate family members), not 10 trades per individual account.

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EXCEPTION

For the purpose of calculating the number of trades in any quarter, trading the same security in the same direction (buy or sell) over a period of five business days will be counted as one transaction.

Trades in ETFs containing 25 or more issuers and trades of MMC stock in Putnam internal plans are not counted towards the 10-trade limit.

COMMENT

Although a Putnam employee’s excessive trading may not itself constitute a conflict of interest with Putnam clients, Putnam believes that its clients’ confidence in Putnam will be enhanced and that the likelihood of Putnam achieving better investment skills results for its clients over the long term will be increased if Putnam employees rely on their investment skills, as opposed to their trading skills in transactions for their own account. Moreover, excessive trading by a Putnam employee for his or her own account diverts an employee’s attention from the responsibility of servicing Putnam clients, and increases the possibilities for transactions that are in actual or apparent conflict with Putnam client transactions. Short-term trading is strongly discouraged, and employees are encouraged to take a long-term view.

Rule 10: Spread Betting

PIL employees may not enter into any spread betting contracts on financial instruments.

COMMENT

Spread betting provides exposure to the movement of an index or security price without holding any form of certificate.

This Rule guards against the danger that a Putnam employee may be in violation of the Code of Ethics by virtue of his spread betting transactions. Please note that this restriction also applies to the spouse of a Putnam employee and any relatives of a Putnam employee living in the same household as the employee, as their transactions are covered by the Code of Ethics. (See page 6.)

C. Discouraged Transaction Rule 1: Naked Options

Putnam employees are strongly discouraged from engaging in writing (selling) naked options for their personal accounts.

Naked option transactions are particularly dangerous, because a Putnam employee may be prevented by the restrictions in this Code of Ethics from covering the naked option at the appropriate time. All employees should keep in mind the limitations on their personal securities trading imposed by this Code when contemplating such an investment strategy. Engaging in naked options transactions on the basis of material non-public information is prohibited. (See Appendix A, Policy Statement Concerning Insider Trading Prohibitions.)

D. Exempted Transactions Rule 1: Involuntary Transactions

Transactions that are involuntary on the part of a Putnam employee are exempt from the prohibitions set forth in Sections I.A., I.B., and I.C.

COMMENTS

This exemption is based on categories of conduct that the Securities and Exchange Commission does not consider “abusive.”

• Examples of involuntary personal securities transactions include:

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(a) Sales out of the brokerage account of a Putnam employee as a result of a bona fide margin call, provided that withdrawal of collateral by the Putnam employee within the ten days previous to the margin call was not a contributing factor to the margin call;

(b) Purchases arising out of an automatic dividend reinvestment program of an issuer of a publicly traded security.

• Transactions by a trust in which the Putnam employee (or a member of his immediate family) holds a beneficial interest, but for which the employee has no direct or indirect influence or control with respect to the selection of investments, are involuntary transactions. In addition, these transactions do not fall within the definition of “personal securities transactions.” (See Definitions.)

• A good-faith belief on the part of the employee that a transaction was involuntary will not be a defense to a violation of the Code of Ethics. In the event of confusion as to whether a particular transaction is involuntary, the burden is on the employee to seek a prior written determination of the applicability of this exemption. The procedures for obtaining such a determination appear in Section VI.

Rule 2: Special Exemptions

Transactions that have been determined, in writing by the Code of Ethics Officer before the transaction occurs, to be no more than remotely harmful to Putnam clients because the transaction would be very unlikely to affect a highly institutional market, or because the transaction is clearly not related economically to the securities to be purchased, sold, or held by a Putnam client, are exempt from the prohibitions set forth in Sections I.A., I.B., and I.C.

IMPLEMENTATION

An employee may seek an ad hoc exemption under this Rule by following the procedures in Section VI.

COMMENTS

• This exemption is also based upon categories of conduct that the Securities and Exchange Commission does not consider “abusive.”

• The burden is on the employee to seek a prior written determination that the proposed transaction meets the standards for an ad hoc exemption set forth in this Rule.

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Section II — Additional Special Rules for Personal Securities Transactions

A. Access Persons and Certain Investment Professionals

Access Persons include all investment professionals and other employees as defined on page 1.

Rule 1: 90-Day Short-Term Rule

Access Persons may not sell a security at a profit within 90 days of purchase or buy a security at a price below which he or she sold it within the past 90 days.

EXCEPTION

None, unless prior written approval from the Code of Ethics Officer is obtained. Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis when no abuse is involved and the equities of the situation support an exemption. For example, although an Access Person may buy a stock as a long-term investment, that stock may have to be sold involuntarily due to unforeseen activity such as a merger.

IMPLEMENTATION

A. The 90-Day Short-Term Rule applies to all Access Persons, as defined in the Definitions section of the Code.

B. Calculation of whether there has been a profit is based upon the market prices of the securities. The calculation includes commissions and other sales charges.

C. As an example, an Access Person would not be permitted to sell a security at $12 that he purchased within the prior 90 days for $10. Similarly, an Access Person would not be permitted to purchase a security at $10 that she had sold within the prior 90 days for $12.

COMMENTS

• The prohibition against short-term trading profits by Access Persons is designed to minimize the possibility that they will capitalize inappropriately on the market impact of trades involving a client portfolio about which they might possibly have information.

• Although Chief Investment Officers, portfolio managers, and analysts may sell securities at a profit within 90 days of purchase in order to comply with the requirements of the 7-Day Rule applicable to them (described below), the profit will have to be disgorged to charity under the terms of the 7-Day Rule.

B. Certain Investment Professionals Rule 2: 7-Day Rule

(a) Portfolio Managers: Before a portfolio manager (including a Chief Investment Officer with respect to an account he manages) places an order to buy a security for any Putnam client portfolio that he manages, he must sell that security or related derivative security if he has purchased it in his personal account within the preceding seven calendar days.

(b) Analysts: Before an analyst makes a purchase or an outperform recommendation for a security (including designation of a security for inclusion in the portfolio of Putnam Research Fund), he must sell that security or related derivative security if he has purchased it in his personal account within the preceding seven calendar days.

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COMMENTS

• This Rule applies to portfolio managers (including Chief Investment Officers with respect to accounts they manage) in connection with any purchase, no matter how small, in any client account managed by that portfolio manager or CIO (even so-called “clone accounts”). In particular, it should be noted that the requirements of this Rule also apply with respect to purchases in client accounts, including “clone accounts,” resulting from “cash flows.” To comply with the requirements of this Rule, it is the responsibility of each portfolio manager or CIO to be aware of the placement of all orders for purchases of a security by client accounts that he or she manages for seven days following the purchase of that security for his or her personal account.

• An investment professional who must sell securities to be in compliance with the 7-Day Rule must absorb any loss and disgorge to charity any profit resulting from the sale. The recipient charity will be chosen by the Code of Ethics Officer.

• This Rule is designed to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest between an investment professional and a Putnam client. A greater burden is placed on these professionals given their positions in the organization. Transactions executed for the employee’s personal account must be conducted in a manner consistent with the Code of Ethics and in such a manner as to avoid any actual or perceived conflict of interest or any abuse of the employee’s position of trust and responsibility.

• “Portfolio manager” is used in this Section as a functional label, and is intended to cover any employee with authority to authorize a trade on behalf of a Putnam client, whether or not such employee bears the title “portfolio manager.” “Analyst” is also used in this Section as a functional label, and is intended to cover any employee who is not a portfolio manager but who may make recommendations regarding investments for Putnam clients.

Rule 3: Blackout Rule

(a) Portfolio Managers: No portfolio manager (including Chief Investment Officers with respect to accounts they manage) shall: (i) sell any security or related derivative security for her personal account until seven calendar days have elapsed since the most recent purchase of that security or related derivative security by any Putnam client portfolio she manages or co-manages; or (ii) purchase any security or related derivative security for her personal account until seven calendar days have elapsed since the most recent sale of that security or related derivative security from any Putnam client portfolio that she manages or co-manages.

(b) Analysts: No analyst shall: (i) sell any security or related derivative security for his personal account until seven calendar days have elapsed since his most recent buy or outperform recommendation for that security or related derivative security (including designation of a security for inclusion in the portfolio of Putnam Research Fund); or (ii) purchase any security or related derivative security for his personal account until seven calendar days have elapsed since his most recent sell or underperform recommendation for that security or related derivative security (including the removal of a security from the portfolio of Putnam Research Fund).

COMMENTS

• This Rule applies to portfolio managers (including Chief Investment Officers with respect to accounts they manage) in connection with any purchase, no matter how small, in any client account managed by that portfolio manager or CIO (even clone accounts). In particular, it should be noted that the requirements of this rule also apply with respect to transactions in client accounts, including clone accounts, resulting from cash flows. In order to comply with the requirements of this Rule, it is the responsibility of each portfolio manager and CIO to be aware of all transactions in a security by client accounts that he or she manages that took place within the seven days preceding a transaction in that security for his or her personal account.

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• This Rule is designed to prevent a Putnam portfolio manager or analyst from engaging in personal investment conduct that appears to be counter to the investment strategy she is pursuing or recommending on behalf of a Putnam client.

Rule 4: Contra-Trading Rule

(a)Portfolio Managers: No portfolio manager shall, without prior clearance and written approval, sell out of his personal account securities or related derivative securities held in any Putnam client portfolio that he manages or co-manages.

(b)Chief Investment Officers: No Chief Investment Officer shall, without prior clearance and written approval, sell out of his personal account securities or related derivative securities held in any Putnam client portfolio managed in his investment group.

IMPLEMENTATION

A. Individuals Authorized to Give Approval. Prior to engaging in any such sale, a portfolio manager shall seek written approval of the proposed sale. In the case of a portfolio manager, prior written approval of the proposed sale shall be obtained from a Chief Investment Officer to whom he reports or, in his absence, another Chief Investment Officer. In the case of a Chief Investment Officer, prior written approval of the proposed sale shall be obtained from another Chief Investment Officer. In addition to the foregoing, prior written approval must also be obtained from the Code of Ethics Officer.

B. Contents of Written Approval. In every instance, use either the attached form of written approval known as “Appendix C” in this Booklet or such other form as the Code of Ethics Officer shall designate. The written approval should be signed by the Chief Investment Officer giving approval and dated when such approval was given, and shall state, briefly, the reasons why the trade was allowed and why the investment conduct pursued by the portfolio manager or Chief Investment Officer was deemed inappropriate for the Putnam client account controlled by the individual seeking to engage in the transaction for his personal account. Such written approval shall be sent by the Chief Investment Officer approving the transaction to the Code of Ethics Officer, for her approval, within 24 hours or as promptly as circumstances permit. Approvals obtained after a transaction has been completed, or while it is in process, will not satisfy the requirements of this Rule.

COMMENT

This Rule, like Rule 3 of this section, is designed to prevent a Putnam portfolio manager from engaging in personal investment conduct that appears to be counter to the investment strategy that he is pursuing on behalf of a Putnam client.

Rule 5: No Personal Benefit

No portfolio manager shall cause, and no analyst shall recommend, a Putnam client to take action for the portfolio manager’s or analyst’s own personal benefit.

COMMENTS

• A portfolio manager who trades in, or an analyst who recommends, particular securities for a Putnam client account in order to support the price of securities in his personal account, or who “front runs” a Putnam client order is in violation of this Rule. Portfolio managers and analysts should be aware that this Rule is not limited to personal transactions in securities (as that word is defined in the Definitions section). Thus, a portfolio manager or analyst who front runs a Putnam client purchase or sale of obligations of the U.S. government is in violation of this Rule. U.S. government obligations are excluded from the definition of security.

• This Rule is not limited to instances when a portfolio manager or analyst has malicious intent. It also prohibits conduct that creates an appearance of impropriety. Portfolio managers and

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analysts who have questions about whether proposed conduct creates an appearance of impropriety should seek a prior written determination from the Code of Ethics Officer, using the procedures described in Section VI.

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Section III — General Rules for All Employees

Rule 1: Compliance with All Laws, Regulations, and Policies

All employees must comply with applicable laws and regulations as well as company policies. This includes tax, anti-trust, political contribution, and international boycott laws. In addition, no employee at Putnam may engage in fraudulent conduct of any kind.

COMMENTS

• Putnam may report to the appropriate legal authorities conduct by Putnam employees that violates this Rule.

• It should also be noted that the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it a criminal offense to make a payment or offer of payment to any non-U.S. governmental official, political party, or candidate to induce that person to affect any governmental act or decision, or to assist Putnam’s obtaining or retaining business.

Rule 2: Conflicts of Interest

No Putnam employee shall conduct herself in a manner that is contrary to the interests of, or in competition with, Putnam or a Putnam client, or that creates an actual or apparent conflict of interest with a Putnam client.

COMMENTS

• This Rule is designed to recognize the fundamental principle that Putnam employees owe their chief duty and loyalty to Putnam and Putnam clients.

• It is expected that a Putnam employee who becomes aware of an investment opportunity that she believes is suitable for a Putnam client whom she services will present it to the appropriate portfolio manager prior to taking advantage of the opportunity herself.

Rule 3: Gifts and Entertainment Policy

No Putnam employee shall accept anything of material value from any broker-dealer, financial institution, corporation, or other entity; any existing or prospective supplier of goods or services with a business relationship to Putnam; or any company or other entity whose securities are held in or are being considered as investments for the Putnam funds, or any other client account. Included are gifts, favors, preferential treatment, special arrangements, or access to special events.

COMMENTS

This Rule is intended to permit the acceptance of only proper types of customary and limited business amenities.

A Putnam employee may not, under any circumstances, accept anything that could create the appearance of a conflict of interest. For example, acceptance of any consideration is prohibited if it would create the appearance of a reward or inducement for conducting Putnam business either with the person providing the gift or his employer.

IMPLEMENTATION

A. Gifts. An employee may not accept gifts with an aggregate value of more than $100 in any year from any one source, i.e., entity or firm. Any Putnam employee who is offered or receives an item exceeding $100 in value must report the details to the Code of Ethics Officer and surrender or return the gift. Any entertainment event provided to an employee where the host is not in attendance is treated as a gift and is subject to the $100 per year per source limit.

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B. Entertainment. Putnam’s rules are designed to permit reasonable, ordinary business entertainment, but prohibit any events that may be perceived as extravagant or that involve lavish expenditures.

1. Occasional lunches, dinners, cocktail parties, or comparable gatherings conducted for business purposes are permitted.

For example, occasional attendance at group functions sponsored by sell-side firms is permitted where the function relates to investments or other business activity. Occasional attendance at these functions is not required to be counted against the limits described in section (B)(2) below.

2. Other entertainment events, such as sporting events, theater, movies, concerts, or other forms of entertainment conducted for business purposes, are permitted only under the following conditions: (i) The host must be present for the event.

(ii) The location of the event must be in the metropolitan area in which the office of the employee is located. For wholesalers, the wholesaler’s entire territory is considered to be his or her metropolitan area.

(iii)Spouses or other family members of the employee may not attend the entertainment event or any meals before or after the entertainment event.

(iv)The value of the entertainment event provided to the employee may not exceed $200, not including the value of any meals that may be provided to the employee before or after the event.

Acceptance of entertainment events that have a market value materially exceeding the face value of the entertainment, which includes, for example, attendance at sporting event playoff games, is prohibited. This prohibition applies even if the face value of tickets to the events is $200 or less or if the Putnam employee offers to pay for the tickets. If there is any ambiguity about whether to accept an entertainment event in these circumstances, please consult the Code of Ethics Officer.

(v) The employee may not accept entertainment events under this provision in section (B)(2) more than six times a year and not more than two times in any year from any single source.

(vi)The Code of Ethics Officer may grant exceptions to these rules. For example, it may be appropriate for an employee attending a legitimate conference in a location away from the office to attend a business entertainment event in that location. All exceptions must be approved in advance by written request to the Code of Ethics Officer.

3. Any employee participating in meals or entertainment under the provisions in sections (B)(1) or (B)(2) above must report the meal or event in PTA within 20 business days (events are subject to the limits of section (B)(2) above). However, the reporting rules do not apply if meals or events are part of the regular program at an investment conference, i.e., open to all participants.

Planned absences, i.e., vacations, leaves (other than certain medical leaves) or business trips, are not valid excuses for providing late reports. Failure to meet the deadline violates the Code’s rule, and sanctions may be imposed.

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C. The following items are prohibited:

1. Any entertainment event attendance that would reflect badly on Putnam as a firm of the highest fiduciary and ethical standards. For example, events involving adult entertainment or gambling must be avoided.

2. Entertainment involving travel away from the metropolitan area in which the employee is located. Even if an exception is granted as discussed in section (B)(2)(vi) above, payment by a third party of the cost of transportation to a location outside the employee’s metropolitan area, lodging while in another location, and any meals not specifically approved by the Code of Ethics officer are prohibited.

3. Personal loans to a Putnam employee on terms more favorable than those generally available for comparable credit standing and collateral.

4. Preferential brokerage or underwriting commissions or spreads or allocations of shares or interests in an investment for the personal account of a Putnam employee.

D. As with any of the provisions of the Code of Ethics, a sincere belief by the employee that he was acting in accordance with the requirements of this Rule will not satisfy his obligations under the Rule. Therefore, an employee who is in doubt concerning the propriety of any gift or favor should seek a prior written determination from the Code of Ethics Officer, as provided in Section VI.C.

E. No Putnam employee may solicit any gift or entertainment from any person, even if the gift or entertainment, if unsolicited, would be permitted.

F. The Rule does not prohibit employees on business travel from using local transportation and arrangements customarily supplied by brokers or similar entities. For example, it is customary for brokers in developing markets to make local transportation arrangements. These arrangements are permitted so long as the expenses of lodging and air travel are paid by Putnam.

G. Putnam Retail Management (PRM) employees are subject to additional Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) rules on gifts and entertainment, which can be found in the PRM Compliance Manual.

Rule 4: Anti-bribery/Kickback Policy

No Putnam employee shall pay, offer, or commit to pay any amount of consideration that might be, or appear to be, a bribe or kickback in connection with Putnam’s business.

COMMENT

Although the Rule does not specifically address political contributions (described in Rule 5), Putnam employees should be aware that it is against corporate policy to use company assets to fund political contributions of any sort, even where such contributions may be legal. No Putnam employee should offer or agree to make any political contributions (including political dinners and similar fundraisers) on behalf of Putnam, and no employee will be reimbursed by Putnam for such contributions made by the employee personally.

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Rule 5: Political Activities, Contributions, Solicitations, and Lobbying Policy

A. Corporate Contributions. Political activities of corporations such as Putnam are highly regulated, and corporate political contributions are prohibited. No corporate assets, funds, facilities, or personnel may be used to benefit any candidate, campaign, political party, or political committee, including contributions made in connection with fundraisers.

1. If employees anticipate that any corporate funds or assets (such as corporate facilities or personnel) may be used in connection with any political volunteer activity, they must obtain pre-approval from the Chief Compliance Officer.

2. Employees should not seek or approve reimbursement from Putnam for any political contribution expenses. Any contributions for which employees seek reimbursement from Putnam are considered contributions by Putnam and are subject to the corporate political contribution requirements.

B. Personal Contributions. Employees have the right to make personal contributions. However, if employees choose to participate in the political process, they must do so as individuals, not as representatives of Putnam.

In certain limited circumstances, individual contributions may raise issues under applicable laws regulating political contributions to public officials, or candidates for official positions, who could be in a position to hire Putnam. As a result, the following rules apply to individual contributions by employees.

1. Prior to making any political contribution to a person or entity with whom Putnam has a current or proposed business relationship, or who can make or influence decisions to engage Putnam to provide services, employees must pre-clear the proposed contribution with the Chief Compliance Officer.

2. Employees may not make contributions to candidates or elected officials for the following offices without prior written approval from the Chief Compliance Officer:

• State or local offices in California, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, or Pennsylvania

• State Treasurer in Connecticut or Vermont

• Any public office in the City of Houston

• Contributions by certain PRM employees to Ohio officials and candidates are also subject to Putnam’s Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) Political Contribution Policy.

C. Government Official. Employees must obtain pre-approval from the Code of Ethics Officer or the Deputy Code of Ethics Officer prior to providing any gift (including meals, entertainment, transportation, or lodging) to any government official or employee.

D. Lobbying. Federal and state law imposes limits and registration requirements on efforts by individuals and companies to influence the passage of legislation or to obtain business from governments. Accordingly, Putnam employees should not engage in any lobbying activities without approval from the Legal and Compliance Department. Lobbying does not include solicitation of investment management business through the ordinary course of business, such as responding to a Request For Proposal (RFP).

For additional detail on entertainment and lobbying of elected officials, please refer to the State Regulation Governing Meals, Entertainment, Gifts — Lobbying Policy found on the Chief Compliance Officer’s Compliance site via Putnam’s intranet home page at http://intranet or contact the Legal and Compliance Department.

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COMMENTS

• Putnam has established a political action committee (PAC) that contributes to worthy candidates for political office. Any request received by a Putnam employee for a political contribution must be directed to Putnam’s Legal and Compliance Department.

• This Rule prohibits solicitation on personal letterhead by Putnam employees except as approved by the Code of Ethics Officer.

• Certain officers and employees of Putnam Retail Management (PRM) and other employees involved in Putnam’s College Advantage Section 529 Plan with Ohio Tuition Trust Authority are subject to special rules on political contributions. For questions on these requirements, please call the Director of Compliance for PRM.

Rule 6: Confidentiality of Putnam Business Information

No unauthorized disclosure may be made by any employee or former employee of any trade secrets or proprietary information of Putnam or of any confidential information. No information regarding any Putnam client portfolio, actual or proposed securities trading activities of any Putnam client, or Putnam research shall be disclosed outside the Putnam organization unless doing so has a valid business purpose and is in accord with relevant procedures established by Putnam relating to such disclosures.

COMMENT

All information about Putnam and Putnam clients is strictly confidential. Putnam research information should not be disclosed without proper approval and never for personal gain.

Rule 7: Positions Outside Putnam

No Putnam employee shall serve as employee, officer, director, trustee, or general partner of a corporation or entity other than Putnam, without prior written approval of the Code of Ethics Officer. Requests for a role at a publicly traded company are especially disfavored and are closely reviewed. Permission will be granted only in extenuating circumstances. (See also Section IV, Rule 5.)

IMPLEMENTATION

A. All employees must provide a written request seeking approval from the Code of Ethics Officer if they wish to serve as an employee, officer, director, trustee, or general partner of a corporation or entity other than Putnam. The details of the position outside Putnam must be disclosed in PTA. Click on Certifications/Disclosures/Positions Outside Putnam/start/complete each question/click Submit. A determination will be sent via e-mail.

B. FINRA-licensed employees under PRM also have an obligation to disclose outside positions, new or terminated, in PTA as well.

C. Upon hire, all employees who also hold an outside position must complete a disclosure request in PTA to continue to hold the position.

EXCEPTION

Charitable or Non-profit Exception. Putnam employees may serve as an officer, director, or trustee of a charitable or not-for-profit institution, provided that the employee abides by the Code of Ethics and the Policy Statements with respect to any investment activity for which she has any discretion or input as officer, director, or trustee. The pre-clearance and reporting requirements of the Code of Ethics do not apply to the trading activities of such charitable or not-for-profit institutions for which an employee serves as an officer, director, or trustee unless the employee is responsible for day-to-day portfolio management of the account.

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COMMENTS

• This Rule is designed to ensure that Putnam cannot be deemed an affiliate of any issuer of securities by virtue of service by one of its officers or employees as director or trustee.

• Positions with public companies are especially problematic and will normally not be approved.

• Certain charitable or not-for-profit institutions have assets (such as endowment funds or employee benefit plans) that require prudent investment. To the extent that a Putnam employee (because of her position as officer, director, or trustee of an outside entity) is charged with responsibility to invest such assets prudently, she may not be able to discharge that duty while simultaneously abiding by the spirit of the Code of Ethics and the Policy Statements. Employees are cautioned that they should not accept service as an officer, director, or trustee of an outside charitable or not-for-profit entity where such investment responsibility is involved, without seriously considering their ability to discharge their fiduciary duties with respect to such investments.

Rule 8: Role as Trustee or Fiduciary Outside of Putnam Investments

No Putnam employee shall serve as a trustee, an executor, a custodian, or any other fiduciary, or as an investment advisor or counselor for any account outside Putnam.

EXCEPTIONS

A. Charitable or Religious Exception. Putnam employees may serve as a fiduciary with respect to a religious or charitable trust or foundation, so long as the employee abides by the spirit of the Code of Ethics and the Policy Statements with respect to any investment activity over which he has any discretion or input. The pre-clearance and reporting requirements of the Code of Ethics do not apply to the trading activities of such a religious or charitable trust or foundation unless the employee is responsible for day-to-day portfolio management of the account.

B. Family Trust or Estate Exception. Putnam employees may serve as a fiduciary with respect to a family trust or estate, as long as the employee abides by all of the Rules of the Code of Ethics with respect to any investment activity over which he has any discretion.

COMMENT

The roles permissible under this Rule may carry with them the obligation to invest assets prudently. Once again, Putnam employees are cautioned that they may not be able to fulfill their duties in that respect while abiding by the Code of Ethics and the Policy Statements.

Rule 9: Investment Clubs

No Putnam employee may be a member of any investment club.

COMMENT

This Rule guards against the danger that a Putnam employee may be in violation of the Code of Ethics and the Policy Statements by virtue of his personal securities transactions in or through an entity that is not bound by the restrictions imposed by this Code of Ethics and the Policy Statements. Please note that this restriction also applies to the spouse of a Putnam employee and any relatives of a Putnam employee living in the same household as the employee, as their transactions are covered by the Code of Ethics. (See pages 1 and 6.)

Rule 10: Business Negotiations for Putnam Investments

No Putnam employee may become involved in a personal capacity in consultations or negotiations for corporate financing, acquisitions, or other transactions for outside companies (whether or not held by any Putnam client), nor negotiate nor accept a fee in connection with these activities

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without obtaining the prior written permission of the Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments.

Rule 11: Accurate Records

No employee may create, alter, or destroy (or participate in the creation, alteration, or destruction of) any record that is intended to mislead anyone or to conceal anything that is, or is reasonably believed to be, improper. In addition, all employees responsible for the preparation, filing, or distribution of any regulatory filings or public communications must ensure that such filings or communications are timely, complete, fair, accurate, and understandable.

COMMENTS

• In many cases, this is not only a matter of company policy and ethical behavior but also required by law. Our books and records must accurately reflect the transactions represented and their true nature. For example, records must be accurate as to the recipient of all payments; expense items, including personal expense reports, must accurately reflect the true nature of the expense. No unrecorded fund or asset shall be established or maintained for any reason.

• All financial books and records must be prepared and maintained in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and Putnam’s existing accounting controls, to the extent applicable.

Rule 12: Family Members’ Conflict Policy

No employee or member of an employee’s immediate family shall have any direct or indirect personal financial interests in companies that do business with Putnam, unless such interest is disclosed and approved by the Code of Ethics Officer. Investment holdings in public companies that are not material to the employee are excluded from this prohibition. The Code also provides more detailed supplemental rules to address potential conflicts of interests that may arise if members of employees’ families are closely involved in doing business with Putnam.

Corporate Purchase of Goods and Services — Putnam will not acquire goods and services from any firm in which a member of an employee’s immediate family serves as the sales representative in a senior management capacity or has an ownership interest with the supplier firm (excluding normal investment holdings in public companies) without permission from the Director of Procurement and the Code of Ethics Officer. Any employee who is aware of a proposal to purchase goods and services from a firm at which a member of the employee’s immediate family meets one of the previously mentioned conditions must notify the Director of Procurement and the Code of Ethics Officer.

Portfolio Trading — Putnam will not allocate any trades for a portfolio to any firm that employs a member of an employee’s immediate family as a sales representative to Putnam (in a primary, secondary, or backup role). Any Putnam employee who is aware that an immediate family member serves as a broker-dealer’s sales representative to Putnam should inform the Code of Ethics Officer.

Definition of Immediate Family (specific to Rule 12) — “Immediate family” of an employee means (1) spouse or domestic partner of the employee, (2) any child, sibling, or parent of an employee and any person married to a child, sibling, or parent of an employee, and (3) any other person who lives in the same household as the employee.

Rule 13: Affiliated Entities

Non-Putnam affiliates (NPAs), listed below in the last comment, provide investment advisory services. No employee shall:

(a)Directly or indirectly seek to influence the purchase, retention or disposition of, or exercise of voting consent, approval, or similar rights with respect to any portfolio security in any account or fund advised by the NPA and not by Putnam;

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(b)Transmit any information regarding the purchase, retention or disposition of, or exercise of voting, consent, approval, or similar rights with respect to any portfolio security held in a Putnam or NPA client account to any personnel of the NPA;

(c)Transmit any trade secrets, proprietary information, or confidential information of Putnam to the NPA unless doing so has a valid business purpose and is in accord with any relevant procedures established by Putnam relating to such disclosures;

(d)Use confidential information or trade secrets of the NPA for the benefit of the employee, Putnam, or any other NPA; or

(e)Breach any duty of loyalty to the NPA derived from the employee’s service as a director or officer of the NPA.

COMMENTS

• Sections (a) and (b) of the Rule are designed to help ensure that the portfolio holdings of Putnam clients and clients of the NPA need not be aggregated for purposes of determining beneficial ownership under Section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act or applicable regulatory or contractual investment restrictions that incorporate such definition of beneficial ownership. Persons who serve as directors or officers of both Putnam and an NPA should take care to avoid even inadvertent violations of Section (b). Section (a) does not prohibit a Putnam employee who serves as a director or officer of the NPA from seeking to influence the modification or termination of a particular investment product or strategy in a manner that is not directed at any specific securities. Sections (a) and (b) do not apply when a Putnam affiliate serves as an advisor or sub-advisor to the NPA or one of its products, in which case normal Putnam aggregation rules apply.

• As a separate entity, any NPA may have trade secrets or confidential information that it would not choose to share with Putnam. This choice must be respected.

• When Putnam employees serve as directors or officers of an NPA, they are subject to common law duties of loyalty to the NPA, despite their Putnam employment. In general, this means that when performing their duties as NPA directors or officers, they must act in the best interest of the NPA and its shareholders. Putnam’s Legal and Compliance Department will assist any Putnam employee who is a director or officer of an NPA and has questions about the scope of his or her responsibilities to the NPA.

• Entities that are currently non-Putnam affiliates within the scope of this Rule are: Nissay Asset Management Co., Ltd., LP and PanAgora Asset Management, Inc. (“PanAgora”).

• Putnam and PanAgora also maintain an information barrier between the investment professionals of each organization regarding investment and trading information.

Rule 14: Computer Systems and Network Use Policy

No employee shall use computers, the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, phones, fax machines and/or the mail service in a manner that is inconsistent with their use as set forth in Putnam’s Employee Handbook. No employee shall introduce a computer virus or computer code that may result in damage to Putnam’s information or computer systems.

All Putnam business must be conducted on Putnam e-mail and instant messaging accounts in order to comply with regulatory and record-retention requirements. Conducting Putnam-related business through personal accounts such as Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc., is prohibited.

COMMENT

Putnam’s policy statements relating to these matters are contained in the Computer System and Network Responsibilities section within the Employee Handbook. The online Employee Handbook is also available directly on Putnam’s intranet site at: http://intranet/employee _ handbook .

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Rule 15: CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct

All employees must follow and abide by the spirit of the Code of Ethics and the Standards of Professional Conduct of the CFA Institute. The text of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct are set forth in Appendix D.

Rule 16: Privacy Policy

Except as provided below, no employee may disclose to any outside organization or person any non-public personal information about any individual who is a current or former shareholder of any Putnam retail or institutional fund, or current or former client of a Putnam company. All employees shall follow the security procedures as established from time to time by a Putnam company to protect the confidentiality of all shareholder and client account information.

Except as Putnam’s Legal and Compliance Department may expressly authorize, no employee shall collect any non-public personal information about a prospective or current shareholder of a Putnam fund or prospective or current client of a Putnam company, other than through an account application (or corresponding information provided by the shareholder’s financial representative) or in connection with executing shareholder or client transactions, nor shall any information be collected other than the following: name, address, telephone number, date of birth, Social Security number, and investment, broker, and transaction information.

EXCEPTIONS

A. Putnam Employees. Non-public personal information may be disclosed to a Putnam employee in connection with processing transactions or maintaining accounts for shareholders of a Putnam fund and clients of a Putnam company, to the extent that access to such information is necessary to the performance of that employee’s job functions.

B. Shareholder Consent Exception. Non-public personal information about a shareholder’s or client’s account may be provided to a non-Putnam organization at the specific request of the shareholder or client or with the shareholder’s or client’s prior written consent.

C. Broker or Advisor Exception. Non-public personal information about a shareholder’s or client’s account may be provided to the shareholder’s or client’s broker of record.

D. Third-Party Service Provider Exception. Non-public personal information may be disclosed to a service provider that is not affiliated with a Putnam fund or Putnam company only when such disclosure is necessary for the service provider to perform the specific services contracted for, and only (a) if the service provider executes Putnam’s standard confidentiality agreement, or (b) pursuant to an agreement containing a confidentiality provision that has been approved by the Legal and Compliance Department. Examples of such service providers include proxy solicitors and proxy vote tabulators, mail services, and providers of other administrative services, and Information Services Division consultants who have access to non-public personal information.

COMMENTS

• Non-public personal information is any information that personally identifies a shareholder of a Putnam fund or client of a Putnam company and is not derived from publicly available sources. This privacy policy applies to shareholders or clients who are individuals, not institutions. However, as a general matter, all information that we receive about a shareholder of a Putnam fund or client of a Putnam company shall be treated as confidential. No employee may sell or otherwise provide shareholder or client lists or any other information relating to a shareholder or client to any marketing organization.

• All Putnam employees with access to shareholder or client account information must be trained in and follow Putnam’s security procedures designed to safeguard that information from unauthorized use. For example, a telephone representative must be trained in and follow Putnam’s security procedures to verify the identity of a caller requesting account information.

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• Any questions regarding this privacy policy should be directed to Putnam’s Legal and Compliance Department. A violation of this policy will be subject to the sanctions imposed for violations of Putnam’s Code of Ethics.

• Employees must report any violation of this policy or any possible breach of the confidentiality of client information, whether intentional or accidental, to the managing director in charge of the employee’s business unit. Managing directors who are notified of such a violation or possible breach must immediately report it in writing to Putnam’s Chief Compliance Officer and, in the event of a breach of computerized data, Putnam’s Chief Technology Officer.

Rule 17: Anti-money Laundering Policy

No employee may engage in any money laundering activity or facilitate any money laundering activity through the use of any Putnam account or client account. Any situations giving rise to a suspicion that attempted money laundering may be occurring in any account must be reported immediately to the managing director in charge of the employee’s business unit. Managing directors who are notified of such a suspicion of money laundering activity must immediately report it in writing to Putnam’s Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

Rule 18: Record Retention

All employees must comply with the record retention requirements applicable to the business unit. Employees should check with their managers or the Chief Administrative Officer of their division to determine what record retention requirements apply to their business unit.

For PIL employees, the Code of Ethics incorporates any relevant requirements of the U.K. regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), and will be amended from time to time to reflect any U.K. regulatory changes as required.

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Section IV — Reporting Requirements

Reporting of Personal Securities Transactions

Rule 1: Broker Confirmations and Statements

Each Putnam employee shall ensure that copies of all confirmations for securities transactions for personal brokerage accounts, and brokerage account statements are sent to the Legal and Compliance Department Code of Ethics Administrator. (For the purpose of this Rule, securities shall also include ETFs, futures, and other derivatives on broad-based market indexes excluded from the pre-clearance requirement.) Statements and confirmations are required for Putnam funds not held at Putnam or in a Putnam retirement plan, as well as for U.S. mutual funds sub-advised by Putnam.

Putnam employees must disclose their brokerage accounts in the PTA system and complete all required information, which will facilitate the instructions to the broker.

IMPLEMENTATION

A. Putnam employees should contact the Code of Ethics Administrator for a 407 letter instructing the broker to mail copies of confirmations and statements directly to Putnam. It is the employees’ responsibility to follow up with the broker on a reasonable basis to ensure that instructions are being followed.

B. Upon hire and within a designated time frame, Putnam employees are required to establish their broker profiles in PTA.

C. Specific procedures apply to employees of PIL. Employees of PIL should contact the London Code of Ethics Administrator.

D. Failure of a broker-dealer to comply with the instructions of a Putnam employee to send confirmations and statements shall be a violation by the Putnam employee of this Rule. Similarly, failure by an employee to report the existence of a personal account and, if the account is opened after joining Putnam, failure to obtain proper authorization to establish the account shall be a violation of this Rule.

E. Statements and confirmations must also be sent for members of an employee’s immediate family, including statements from a family member’s 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan at another employer.

F. Employees are not required to provide broker confirmations and statements for MMC transactions in Putnam’s 401(k)/Profit Sharing and Stock Purchase Plan accounts because we rely on internal reporting.

COMMENTS

• Transactions for personal accounts are defined broadly to include more than transactions in accounts under an employee’s own name. (See Definitions.)

• Statements and confirmations are required for all personal securities transactions, whether or not exempted or excepted by this Code.

• To the extent that a Putnam employee has investment authority over securities transactions of a family trust or estate, confirmations of those transactions must also be made, unless the employee has received a prior written exception from the Code of Ethics Officer.

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Rule 2: Access Person — Quarterly Transaction Report

Every Access Person shall file a quarterly report within fifteen calendar days of the end of each quarter, recording all purchases and sales of securities for personal accounts as defined in the Definitions section. (For the purpose of this Rule, reportable “securities” also include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), futures, and any option on a security or securities index, including broad-based market indexes excluded from the pre-clearance requirement, and transactions in Putnam open-end funds if the account for the Putnam funds is not held at Putnam or in a Putnam retirement plan and for transactions in U.S. mutual funds sub-advised by Putnam.)

IMPLEMENTATION

It is mandatory that all Access Persons file a quarterly transaction report in the PTA online system. The form shall contain a representation that employees have complied fully with all provisions of the Code of Ethics.

The date for each transaction required to be disclosed in the quarterly report is the trade date for the transaction, not the settlement date.

Planned absences, i.e., vacations, leaves (other than certain medical leaves), or business trips, are not valid excuses for providing late reports. Failure to meet the deadline violates the Code’s rules and sanctions may be imposed.

COMMENT

If the requirement to file a quarterly report applies to you and you fail to report within the required 15-day period, monetary fines or harsher sanctions will be imposed. It is the responsibility of the employee to request an early report if he has knowledge of a planned absence, i.e., vacation, business trip, or leave.

Rule 3: Access Person — Initial/Annual Holdings Report

Access Persons must disclose their personal securities holdings in the Code of Ethics monitoring system, PTA, upon commencement of employment (within ten days of hire) and thereafter on an annual basis. These SEC requirements are mandatory and designed to facilitate the monitoring of personal securities transactions. Putnam’s Code of Ethics Administrator provides Access Persons with instructions regarding their submissions and certifications of these reports in PTA.

Non - Access Persons must disclose their brokerage accounts within 30 days of hire.

Rule 4: Certifications

All employees are required to submit a certification in PTA annually attesting to compliance with all of the conditions of the Code of Ethics.

Rule 5: Positions Outside Putnam

The details of a position outside Putnam must be disclosed in PTA under Certifications/Disclosures/Positions Outside Putnam. (See Section III, Rule 7.)

Rule 6: Business Ethics

If a Putnam employee suspects that fraudulent, illegal, or other irregular activity (including violations of the Code of Ethics) might be occurring at Putnam, the activity should be reported immediately to the managing director in charge of that employee’s business unit. Managing directors who are notified of any such activity must immediately report it in writing to Putnam’s Chief Financial Officer and Putnam’s Chief Compliance Officer.

An employee who does not feel comfortable reporting this activity to the managing director may instead contact the Chief Compliance Officer, the Putnam Ethics hotline at 1-808-475-4210, or Putnam’s Ombudsman.

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Rule 7: Ombudsman

Putnam has established the office of the corporate ombudsman as a resource to help employees address legal or ethical issues in the workplace and to allow employees to voice concerns or seek clarity on issues. The Ombudsman provides a confidential, independent, and impartial source to employees to discuss potential violations of law or of company standards without fear of retribution, and serves as a neutral party with no vested interest in a particular outcome. The Ombudsman is available on an anonymous basis by calling 1-866-ombuds7 (866-662-8377) or by calling 1-617-760-8897.

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Section V — Education Requirements

Every Putnam employee has an obligation to fully understand the rules and requirements of the Code of Ethics.

Rule 1: Distribution of Code

A copy of the Code of Ethics will be distributed to every Putnam employee at least annually. All Access Persons will be required to certify annually that they have read, understood, and will comply with the provisions of the Code of Ethics, including the Code’s Policy Statement Concerning Insider Trading Prohibitions.

Rule 2: Annual Training Requirement

Every employee will be required to complete training on Putnam’s Code of Ethics on an annual basis.

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Section VI — Compliance and Appeal Procedures

A. Restricted List

No employee may engage in a personal securities transaction without prior clearance.

B. Consultation of Restricted List

It is the responsibility of each employee to pre-clear through PTA or consult with the Code of Ethics Administrator, prior to engaging in a personal securities transaction, to determine if the security he proposes to trade is on the Restricted List and, if so, whether it is subject to the Large-/Mid-Cap Exemption.

C. Request for Determination

An employee who has a question concerning the applicability of the Code of Ethics to a particular situation shall request a determination from the Code of Ethics Officer before engaging in the conduct or personal securities transaction about which he has a question.

If the question pertains to a personal securities transaction, the request shall state for whose account the transaction is proposed, the relationship of that account to the employee, the security proposed to be traded, the proposed price and quantity, the entity with whom the transaction will take place (if known), and any other information or circumstances of the trade that could have a bearing on the Code of Ethics Officer’s determination. If the question pertains to other conduct, the request for determination shall give sufficient information about the proposed conduct to assist the Code of Ethics Officer in ascertaining the applicability of the Code. In every instance, the Code of Ethics Officer may request additional information, and may decline to render a determination if the information provided is insufficient.

The Code of Ethics Officer shall make every effort to render a determination promptly.

No perceived ambiguity in the Code of Ethics shall excuse any violation. Any person who believes the Code to be ambiguous in a particular situation should request a determination from the Code of Ethics Officer.

D. Request for Ad Hoc Exemption

Any employee who wishes to obtain an ad hoc exemption under Section I.D., Rule 2, should request from the Code of Ethics Officer an exemption in writing in advance of the conduct or transaction sought to be exempted. In the case of a personal securities transaction, the request for an ad hoc exemption shall give the same information about the transaction required in a request for determination under Section VI.C., and should state why the proposed personal securities transaction would be unlikely to affect a highly institutional market, or is unrelated economically to securities to be purchased, sold, or held by any Putnam client. In the case of other conduct, the request shall give information sufficient for the Code of Ethics Officer to ascertain whether the conduct raises questions of propriety or conflict of interest, real or apparent.

The Code of Ethics Officer shall make reasonable efforts to promptly render a written determination concerning the request for an ad hoc exemption.

E. Appeal to Code of Ethics Officer with Respect to Restricted List

If an employee ascertains that a security that he wishes to trade for his personal account appears on the Restricted List, and thus the transaction is prohibited, he may appeal the prohibition to the Code of Ethics Officer by submitting a written memorandum containing the same information as

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would be required in a request for a determination. The Code of Ethics Officer shall make every effort to respond to the appeal promptly.

F. Information Concerning Identity of Compliance Personnel

The names of Code of Ethics personnel are available by contacting the Legal and Compliance Department and will be published on Putnam’s intranet site.

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Section VII — Sanctions

Sanction Guidelines

The Code of Ethics Oversight Committee is responsible for setting sanctions policies for violating the Code. The Committee has adopted the following minimum monetary sanctions for violations of the Code. These sanctions apply even if the exception results from inadvertence rather than intentional misbehavior. The Code of Ethics Officer is authorized to impose the minimum sanction on employees without further Committee action. However, the sanctions noted below are only minimums and the Committee reserves the right to impose additional sanctions such as higher monetary sanctions, trading bans, suspension, or termination of employment as it determines to be appropriate.

A. The minimum sanction per violation of the following Rules is disgorgement of any profits or payment of avoided losses and the following payments:

Section I.A., Rule 1 (Pre-clearance and Restricted List) Section I.B., Rule 1 (Short selling) Section I.B., Rule 2 (IPOs) Section I.B., Rule 3 (Private Placements) Section I.B., Rule 4 (Trading with Inside Information) Section I.B., Rules 6-8 (Holding and Trading of Putnam Funds) Section II, Rule 2 (7-Day Rule) Section II, Rule 3 (Blackout Rule) Section II, Rule 4 (Contra-Trading Rule) Section II, Rule 5 (Trading for Personal Benefit)

Officer Level	SMD/MD	SVP/VP	AVP/non-officer
1st violation	$500	$250	$50
2nd violation	$1,000	$500	$100
3rd violation	Minimum monetary sanction as above with ban on all new personal
	individual investments.

B. The minimum sanction for violations of all other Rules in the Code is as follows:

Officer Level	SMD/MD	SVP/VP	AVP/non-officer
1st violation	$100	$50	$ 25
Subsequent violation	$200	$100	$ 50

The reference period for determining whether a violation is initial or subsequent will be five years.

NOTE

The Committee’s belief that an employee has violated the Code of Ethics intentionally will result in more severe sanctions than outlined in the guidelines above. The Code of Ethics Oversight Committee retains the right to increase or decrease the sanctions for a particular violation in light of the circumstances.

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Appendix A — Insider Trading Prohibitions Policy Statement

Putnam has always forbidden trading by its employees on material non-public information (inside information). Tough federal laws make it important for Putnam to state that prohibition in the strongest possible terms, and to establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures to prevent the use of material non-public information.

Unlawful trading while in possession of inside information can be a crime. Federal law provides that an individual convicted of trading on inside information may go to jail for a period of time. There is also significant monetary liability for an inside trader; the Securities and Exchange Commission can seek a court order requiring a violator to pay back profits, as well as penalties substantially greater than those profits. In addition private plaintiffs can seek recovery for harm suffered by them. The inside trader is not the only subject to liability. In certain cases, controlling persons of inside traders, including supervisors of inside traders or Putnam itself, can be liable for large penalties.

Section I. of this Policy Statement contains rules concerning inside information. Section II. contains a discussion of what constitutes unlawful insider trading.

Neither material non-public information nor unlawful insider trading is easy to define. Section II. of this Policy Statement gives a general overview of the law in this area. However, the legal issues are complex and must be resolved by the Code of Ethics Officer. If an employee has any doubt as to whether she has received material non-public information, she must consult with the Code of Ethics Officer prior to using that information in connection with the purchase or sale of a security for his own account or the account of any Putnam client, or communicating the information to others. A simple rule of thumb is if you think the information is not available to the public at large, do not disclose it to others and do not trade securities to which the inside information relates.

An employee aware of, or in possession of, inside information must report it immediately to the Code of Ethics Officer. If an employee has failed to consult the Code of Ethics Officer, Putnam will not excuse employee misuse of inside information on the grounds that the employee claims to have been confused about this Policy Statement or the nature of the information in his possession.

If Putnam determines, in its sole discretion, that an employee has failed to abide by this Policy Statement, or has engaged in conduct that raises a significant question concerning insider trading, he will be subject to disciplinary action, including termination of employment.

There are no exceptions to this policy statement, and no one is exempt.

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Appendix A — Definitions: Insider Trading

Code of Ethics Administrator The individual designated by the Code of Ethics Officer to assume responsibility for day-to-day, nondiscretionary administration of this Policy Statement. The Code of Ethics Administrator is Laura Rose.

Code of Ethics Officer The Putnam officer who has been assigned the responsibility of enforcing and interpreting this Code. The Code of Ethics Officer shall be the Chief Compliance Officer or such other person as is designated by the Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments. If the Code of Ethics Officer is unavailable, the Deputy Code of Ethics Officer shall act in his stead. The Code of Ethics Officer is Bob Leveille. The Deputy Code of Ethics Officer is Kathleen Griffin.

Immediate family Spouse, domestic partner, minor children, or other relatives living in the same household as the Putnam employee.

Purchase or sale of a security Any acquisition or transfer of any interest in the security for direct or indirect consideration, including the writing of an option.

Putnam Any or all of Putnam Investments Trust, and its subsidiaries, any one of which shall be a Putnam company.

Putnam client Any client of the Putnam mutual funds, or any advisory, trust, or other client for whom Putnam manages money.

Putnam employee (or employee) Any employee of Putnam.

Security Anything defined as a security under federal law. The term includes any type of equity or debt security, any interest in a business trust or partnership, and any rights relating to a security, such as put and call options, warrants, convertible securities, and securities indexes. (Note: The definition of security in this Insider Trading Prohibitions Policy Statement varies significantly from that in the Code of Ethics. For example, the definition in this Policy Statement specifically includes all securities of any type.)

Transaction for a personal account (or personal securities transaction) Securities transactions: (a) for the personal account of any employee; (b) for the account of a member of the immediate family of any employee; (c) for the account of a partnership in which a Putnam employee or immediate family member is a domestic partner with investment discretion; (d) for the account of a trust in which a Putnam employee or immediate family member is a trustee with investment discretion; (e) for the account of a closely held corporation in which a Putnam employee or immediate family member holds shares and for which he has investment discretion; and (f ) for any account other than a Putnam client account that receives investment advice of any sort from the employee or immediate family member, or as to which the employee or immediate family member has investment discretion. Officers and employees of PIL must also consult the relevant procedures on compliance with U.K. insider dealing legislation set forth in PIL’s Compliance Manual.

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Appendix A — Section I: Rules Concerning Inside Information

Rule 1: Inside Information

No Putnam employee shall purchase or sell any security listed on the Inside Information List (the Red List) either for his personal account or for a Putnam client.

IMPLEMENTATION

When an employee seeks clearance in the PTA system for a personal security transaction that is on the Red List, the request will be denied via a message in the PTA system.

COMMENT

This Rule is designed to prohibit any employee from trading a security while Putnam may have inside information concerning that security or the issuer. Every trade, whether for a personal account or for a Putnam client, is subject to this Rule.

Rule 2: Material Non-public Information

No Putnam employee shall purchase or sell any security, either for a personal account or for the account of a Putnam client, while in possession of material non-public information concerning that security or the issuer, without the prior written approval of the Code of Ethics Officer.

IMPLEMENTATION

In order to obtain prior written approval of the Code of Ethics Officer, a Putnam employee should follow the reporting steps prescribed in Rule 3.

COMMENTS

• Rule 1 concerns the conduct of an employee when Putnam possesses material non-public information. Rule 2 concerns the conduct of an employee who herself possesses material non-public information about a security that is not yet on the Red List.

• If an employee has any question as to whether information she possesses is material and/or non-public information, she must contact the Code of Ethics Officer immediately in accordance with Rule 3 prior to purchasing or selling any security related to the information or communicating the information to others. The Code of Ethics Officer shall have the sole authority to determine what constitutes material non-public information for the purposes of this Policy Statement.

Rule 3: Reporting of Material Non-public Information

Any Putnam employee who believes he is aware of or has received material non-public information concerning a security or an issuer shall immediately report the information to the Code of Ethics Officer, the Deputy Code of Ethics Officer or, in his or her absence, a lawyer in the Putnam Legal and Compliance Department and to no one else. After reporting the information, the Putnam employee shall comply strictly with Rule 2 by not trading in the security without the prior written approval of the Code of Ethics Officer and shall (a) take precautions to ensure the continued confidentiality of the information and (b) refrain from communicating the information in question to any person.

IMPLEMENTATION

A. An employee must communicate any potential material non-public information to the Code of Ethics Officer in a way designed to prevent the spread of such information and must do so prior to purchasing or selling a security or communicating the information to others. Once the employee has reported potential material non-public information to the Code of Ethics Officer, the Code of

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Ethics Officer will evaluate whether such information constitutes material non-public information, and whether a duty exists that makes use of such information improper. If the Code of Ethics Officer determines either (a) that the information is not material or is public or (b) that use of the information is proper, he will issue a written approval to the employee specifically authorizing trading while in possession of the information, if the employee so requests. If the Code of Ethics Officer determines (a) that the information may be non-public and material and (b) that use of such information may be improper, he will place the security that is the subject of such information on the Red List.

B. An employee who reports potential inside information to the Code of Ethics Officer should expect that the Code of Ethics Officer will need significant information, and time to gather such information, to make the evaluation, including information about (a) the manner in which the employee acquired the information and (b) the identity of individuals to whom the employee has revealed the information, or who have otherwise learned the information. In appropriate situations, the Code of Ethics Officer will normally place the affected security or securities on the Red List pending the completion of his evaluation.

C. If an employee possesses documents, disks, or other materials containing potential inside information, the employee must take precautions to ensure the confidentiality of the information in question. Those precautions include (a) putting documents containing such information out of the view of a casual observer, and (b) securing files containing such documents or ensuring that computer files reflecting such information are secure from viewing by others.

D. The PTA system will automatically reject requests to pre-clear a purchase or sale of securities of any of the following Putnam affiliates: Great-West Lifeco Inc., Power Financial Corporation, Power Corporation of Canada, and IGM Financial Inc. Any employee wishing to place a trade in one of these companies’ securities must contact the Code of Ethics Officer or the Deputy Code of Ethics Officer to request manual approval of the pre-clearance request. An employee requesting such approval must certify that he or she is not in possession of any material non-public information regarding the company in which he or she is seeking to place a trade. The decision whether or not to grant the pre-clearance request is in the sole discretion of the Code of Ethics Officer and the Deputy Code of Ethics Officer. The Code of Ethics Officer and Deputy Code of Ethics Officer will reject any such request for pre-clearance made by members of Putnam’s Executive Board and cert ain members of the Chief Financial Officer’s staff from the end of each calendar quarter to the date of announcement of Great-West Lifeco Inc.’s earnings for such quarter.

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Appendix A — Section II: Overview of Insider Trading

Introduction

This section of the Policy Statement provides guidelines for employees as to what may constitute inside information. It is possible that in the course of her employment, an employee may receive inside information. No employee should misuse that information, either by trading for her own account or by communicating the information to others.

What constitutes unlawful insider trading?

The basic definition of unlawful insider trading is trading on material non-public information (also called inside information) by an individual who has a duty not to take advantage of the information. The following sections help explain the definition.

What is material information?

Trading on inside information is not a basis for liability unless the information is material. Information is material if a reasonable person would attach importance to the information in determining his course of action with respect to a security. Information that is reasonably likely to affect the price of a company’s securities is material, but effect on price is not the sole criterion for determining materiality. Information that employees should consider material includes, but is not limited to, dividend changes, earnings estimates, changes in previously released earnings estimates, reorganization, recapitalization, asset sales, plans to commence a tender offer, merger or acquisition proposals or agreements, major litigation, liquidity problems, significant contracts, and extraordinary management developments.

Material information does not have to relate to a company’s business. For example, a court considered as material certain information about the contents of a forthcoming newspaper column that was expected to affect the market price of a security. In that case, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal was found criminally liable for disclosing to others the dates that reports on various companies would appear in the Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column and whether those reports would be favorable or not.

What is non-public information?

Information is non-public until it has been effectively communicated to, and sufficient opportunity has existed for it to be absorbed by, the marketplace. One must be able to point to some fact to show that the information is generally public. For example, information found in a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or appearing in Dow Jones, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal , or other publications of general circulation would be considered public.

Who has a duty not to “take advantage” of inside information?

Unlawful insider trading occurs only if there is a duty not to take advantage of material non-public information. When there is no such duty, it is permissible to trade while in possession of such information. Questions as to whether a duty exists are complex, are fact-specific, and must be answered by a lawyer. If you have any doubt, err on the side of caution.

Insiders and Temporary Insiders Corporate insiders have a duty not to take advantage of inside information. The concept of insider is broad. It includes officers, directors, and employees of a corporation. In addition, a person can be a temporary insider if she enters into a special confidential relationship with a corporation and, as a result, is given access to information concerning the corporation’s affairs. A temporary insider can include, among others, accounting firms, consulting

44

firms, law firms, banks, and the employees of such organizations. Putnam would generally be a temporary insider of a corporation it advises or for which it performs other services, because typically Putnam clients expect Putnam to keep any information disclosed to it confidential.

EXAMPLE

An investment advisor to the pension fund of a large publicly traded corporation, Acme, Inc., learns from an Acme employee that Acme will not be making the minimum required annual contribution to the pension fund because of a serious downturn in Acme’s financial situation. The information conveyed is material and non-public.

COMMENT

Neither the investment advisor, its employees, nor its clients can trade on the basis of that information, because the investment advisor and its employees could be considered temporary insiders of Acme.

Misappropriators Certain people who are not insiders (or temporary insiders) also have a duty not to deceptively take advantage of inside information. Included in this category is an individual who misappropriates (or takes for his own use) material non-public information in violation of a duty owed either to the corporation that is the subject of inside information or some other entity. Such a misappropriator can be held liable if he trades while in possession of that material non-public information.

EXAMPLE

The Chief Investment Officer of Acme, Inc., is aware of Acme’s plans to engage in a hostile takeover of Profit, Inc. The proposed hostile takeover is material and non-public.

COMMENT

The Chief Investment Officer of Acme cannot trade in Profit, Inc.’s stock for his own account. Even though he owes no duty to Profit, Inc., or its shareholders, he owes a duty to Acme not to take advantage of the information about the proposed hostile takeover by using it for his personal benefit.

Tippers and Tippees A person (the tippee) who receives material non-public information from an insider or misappropriator (the tipper) has a duty not to trade while in possession of that information if he knew, or should have known, that the information was provided by the tipper for an improper purpose and in breach of a duty owed by the tipper. In this context, it is an improper purpose for a person to provide such information for personal benefit.

EXAMPLE

The Chief Executive Officer of Acme, Inc., tells his daughter that negotiations concerning a previously announced acquisition of Acme have been terminated. This news is material and, at the time the father tells his daughter, non-public. The daughter sells her shares of Acme.

COMMENT

The father is a tipper because he has a duty to Acme and its shareholders not to take advantage of the information concerning the breakdown of negotiations, and he has conveyed the information for an improper purpose. The daughter is a tippee and is liable for trading on inside information because she knew, or should have known, that her father was conveying the information to her for his personal benefit, and that her father had a duty not to take advantage of Acme information. A person can be a tippee even if he did not learn the information directly from the tipper, but learned it from a previous tippee.

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EXAMPLE

An employee of a law firm that works on mergers and acquisitions learns at work about impending acquisitions. She tells her friend and her friend’s stockbroker about the upcoming acquisitions on a regular basis. The stockbroker tells the brother of a client on a regular basis, who in turn tells two friends, A and B. A and B buy shares of the companies being acquired before the public announcement of the acquisition, and regularly profit from such purchases. A and B do not know the employee of the law firm. They do not, however, ask about the source of the information.

COMMENT

A and B, although they have never heard of the tipper, are tippees because they did not ask about the source of the information, even though they were experienced investors, and were aware that the “tips” they received from this particular source were accurate.

Who can be liable for insider trading?

The categories of individuals discussed above (insiders, temporary insiders, misappropriators, or tippees) can be liable if they trade while in possession of material non-public information.

In addition, individuals other than those who actually trade on inside information can be liable for trades of others. A tipper can be liable if (a) he provided the information in exchange for a personal benefit in breach of a duty, and (b) the recipient of the information (the tippee) traded while in possession of the information.

Most importantly, a controlling person can be liable if the controlling person knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that the controlled person was likely to engage in misuse of inside information and failed to take appropriate steps to prevent it. Putnam is a controlling person of its employees. In addition, certain supervisors may be controlling persons of those employees they supervise.

EXAMPLE

A supervisor of an analyst learns that the analyst has, over a long period of time, secretly received material inside information from Acme, Inc.’s Chief Investment Officer. The supervisor learns that the analyst has engaged in a number of trades for his personal account on the basis of the inside information. The supervisor takes no action.

COMMENT

Even if he is not liable to a private plaintiff, the supervisor can be liable to the Securities and Exchange Commission for a civil penalty of up to three times the amount of the analyst’s profit.

Penalties for insider trading

Penalties for misuse of inside information are severe, both for individuals involved in such unlawful conduct and their employers. A person who violates the insider trading laws can be subject to some or all of the types of penalties below, even if he does not personally benefit from the violation. Penalties include:

• Jail sentences, criminal monetary penalties

• Injunctions permanently preventing an individual from working in the securities industry

• Injunctions ordering an individual to disgorge profits obtained from unlawful insider trading

• Civil penalties substantially greater than the profit gained or loss avoided by the trader, even if the individual paying the penalty did not trade or did not benefit personally

• Civil penalties for the employer or other controlling person

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• Damages in the amount of actual losses suffered by other participants in the market for the security at issue Regardless of whether penalties or money damages are sought by others, Putnam will take whatever action it deems appropriate, including dismissal, if Putnam determines, in its sole discretion, that an employee appears to have committed any violation of this Policy Statement, or to have engaged in any conduct that raises significant questions about whether an insider trading violation has occurred.

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Appendix B — Policy Statement Regarding Employee Trades in Shares of Putnam Closed-End Funds

Pre-clearance

Any purchase or sale of Putnam closed-end fund shares by a Putnam employee must be pre-cleared. A list of the closed-end funds can be obtained from the Code of Ethics Administrator.

Reporting

Employees must direct their brokers to provide to the Code of Ethics Administrator duplicate confirmations and statements of all purchases and sales. If you are an access person required to file a quarterly report of all personal securities transactions, you must include all purchases and sales of closed-end fund shares.

Special Rules Applicable to Managing Directors of Putnam Investment Management, LLC, Executive Board, and officers of the Putnam Funds

Please be aware that managing directors of Putnam Investment Management, LLC, Executive Board, the investment manager of the Putnam mutual funds, Putnam Executive Board members, and officers of the Putnam Funds will not receive clearance to engage in any combination of purchase and sale, or sale and purchase, of the shares of a given closed-end fund within six months of each other. Therefore, purchases should be made only if you intend to hold the shares more than six months; no sales of fund shares should be made if you intend to purchase additional shares of that same fund within six months.

Certain forms are also required to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with purchases and sales of Putnam closed-end funds. You will be notified by the Code of Ethics Administrator if this applies to you. Please contact the Code of Ethics Officer Administrator for further information.

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Appendix C — Contra- Trading Rule Clearance Form
To: Code of Ethics Officer
From:
Date:
Re: Sale of Personal Security
This serves as prior written approval to sell the following personal security:
Name of portfolio manager contemplating personal sale:
Security to be sold:
Number of shares to be sold:
Fund(s) holding security:
Number of shares held by fund:
Reason for the personal sale:
Specify the reason why the sale is inappropriate for fund:
(Please attach additional sheets if necessary. )
CIO approval:	Date:
Code of Ethics Officer/
Deputy Code of Ethics Officer approval:	Date:

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Appendix D — CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct

The CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct (Code and Standards) are fundamental to CFA Institute’s values and essential to achieving its mission to lead the investment profession globally by setting high standards of education, integrity, and professional excellence. High ethical standards are critical to maintaining the public’s trust in financial markets and in the investment profession.

Since their creation in the 1960s, the Code and Standards have promoted the integrity of CFA Institute members and served as a model for measuring the ethics of investment professionals globally, regardless of job function, cultural differences, or local laws and regulations. All CFA Institute members (including holders of the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation) and CFA candidates must abide by the Code and Standards and are encouraged to notify their employer of this responsibility. Violations may result in disciplinary sanctions by CFA Institute. Sanctions can include revocation of membership, candidacy in the CFA Program, and the right to use the CFA designation.

The Code of Ethics

Members of CFA Institute (including Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) charterholders) and candidates for the CFA designation (“Members and Candidates”) must:

• Act with integrity, competence, diligence, and respect, and in an ethical manner with the public, clients, prospective clients, employers, employees, colleagues in the investment profession, and other participants in the global capital markets.

• Place the integrity of the investment profession and the interests of clients above their own personal interests.

• Use reasonable care and exercise independent professional judgment when conducting investment analysis, making investment recommendations, taking investment actions, and engaging in other professional activities.

• Practice and encourage others to practice in a professional and ethical manner that will reflect credit on themselves and the profession.

• Promote the integrity of, and uphold the rules governing, capital markets.

• Maintain and improve their professional competence and strive to maintain and improve the competence of other investment professionals.

Standards of Professional Conduct

I. PROFESSIONALISM

A. Knowledge of the Law. Members and Candidates must understand and comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations (including the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct) of any government, regulatory organization, licensing agency, or professional association governing their professional activities. In the event of conflict, Members and Candidates must comply with the more strict law, rule, or regulation. Members and Candidates must not knowingly participate or assist in and must dissociate from any violation of such laws, rules, or regulations.

B. Independence and Objectivity. Members and Candidates must use reasonable care and judgment to achieve and maintain independence and objectivity in their professional activities.

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Members and Candidates must not offer, solicit, or accept any gift, benefit, compensation, or consideration that reasonably could be expected to compromise their own or another’s independence and objectivity.

C. Misrepresentation. Members and Candidates must not knowingly make any misrepresentations relating to investment analysis, recommendations, actions, or other professional activities.

D. Misconduct. Members and Candidates must not engage in any professional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, or deceit, or commit any act that reflects adversely on their professional reputation, integrity, or competence.

II. INTEGRITY OF CAPITAL MARKETS

A. Material Non-public Information. Members and Candidates who possess material non-public information that could affect the value of an investment must not act or cause others to act on the information.

B. Market Manipulation. Members and Candidates must not engage in practices that distort prices or artificially inflate trading volume with the intent to mislead market participants.

III. DUTIES TO CLIENTS

A. Loyalty, Prudence, and Care. Members and Candidates have a duty of loyalty to their clients and must act with reasonable care and exercise prudent judgment. Members and Candidates must act for the benefit of their clients and place their clients’ interests before their employer’s or their own interests. In relationships with clients, Members and Candidates must determine applicable fiduciary duty and must comply with such duty to persons and interests to whom it is owed.

B. Fair Dealing. Members and Candidates must deal fairly and objectively with all clients when providing investment analysis, making investment recommendations, taking investment action, or engaging in other professional activities.

C. Suitability.

1. When Members and Candidates are in an advisory relationship with a client, they must:

a) Make a reasonable inquiry into a client’s or prospective clients’ investment experience, risk and return objectives, and financial constraints prior to making any investment recommendation or taking investment action, and must reassess and update this information regularly.

b) Determine that an investment is suitable to the client’s financial situation and consistent with the client’s written objectives, mandates, and constraints before making an investment recommendation or taking investment action.

c) Judge the suitability of investments in the context of the client’s total portfolio.

2. When Members and Candidates are responsible for managing a portfolio to a specific mandate, strategy, or style, they must only make investment recommendations or take investment actions that are consistent with the stated objectives and constraints of the portfolio.

D. Performance Presentation. When communicating investment performance information, Members or Candidates must make reasonable efforts to ensure that it is fair, accurate, and complete.

E. Preservation of Confidentiality. Members and Candidates must keep information about current, former, and prospective clients confidential unless:

1. The information concerns illegal activities on the part of the client or prospective client.

2. Disclosure is required by law.

3. The client or prospective client permits disclosure of the information.

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IV. DUTIES TO EMPLOYERS

A. Loyalty. In matters related to their employment, Members and Candidates must act for the benefit of their employer and not deprive their employer of the advantage of their skills and abilities, divulge confidential information, or otherwise cause harm to their employer.

B. Additional Compensation Arrangements. Members and Candidates must not accept gifts, benefits, compensation, or consideration that competes with, or might reasonably be expected to create a conflict of interest with, their employer’s interest unless they obtain written consent from all parties involved.

C. Responsibilities of Supervisors. Members and Candidates must make reasonable efforts to detect and prevent violations of applicable laws, rules, regulations, and the Code and Standards by anyone subject to their supervision or authority.

V. INVESTMENT ANALYSIS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND ACTION

A. Diligence and Reasonable Basis. Members and Candidates must:

1. Exercise diligence, independence, and thoroughness in analyzing investments, making investment recommendations, and taking investment actions.

2. Have a reasonable and adequate basis, supported by appropriate research and investigation, for any investment analysis, recommendation, or action.

B. Communication with Clients and Prospective Clients. Members and Candidates must:

1. Disclose to clients and prospective clients the basic format and general principles of the investment processes used to analyze investments, select securities, and construct portfolios, and must promptly disclose any changes that might materially affect those processes.

2. Use reasonable judgment in identifying which factors are important to their investment analysis, recommendations, or actions and include those factors in communications with clients and prospective clients.

3. Distinguish between fact and opinion in the presentation of investment analysis and recommendations.

C. Record Retention. Members and Candidates must develop and maintain appropriate records to support their investment analysis, recommendations, actions, and other investment-related communications with clients and prospective clients.

VI. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

A. Disclosure of Conflicts. Members and Candidates must make full and fair disclosure of all matters that could reasonably be expected to impair their independence and objectivity or interfere with respective duties to their clients, prospective clients, and employer. Members and Candidates must ensure that such disclosures are prominent, are delivered in plain language, and communicate the relevant information effectively.

B. Priority of Transactions. Investment transactions for clients and employers must have priority over investment transactions in which a Member or Candidate is the beneficial owner.

C. Referral Fees. Members and Candidates must disclose to their employer, clients, and prospective clients, as appropriate, any compensation, consideration, or benefit received by, or paid to, others for the recommendation of products or services.

VII. RESPONSIBILITIES AS A CFA INSTITUTE MEMBER OR CFA CANDIDATE

A. Conduct as Members and Candidates in the CFA Program. Members and Candidates must not engage in any conduct that compromises the reputation or integrity of the CFA Institute or the CFA designation or the integrity, validity, or security of the CFA examinations.

B. Reference to the CFA Institute, the CFA designation, and the CFA Program. When referring to the CFA Institute, CFA Institute membership, the CFA designation, or candidacy in the

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CFA Program, Members and Candidates must not misrepresent or exaggerate the meaning or implications of membership in the CFA Institute, holding the CFA designation, or candidacy in the CFA Program.

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Appendix E — Inducement Policy for Putnam Investments Limited (PIL) Employees

Inducements

Putnam Investments Limited has adopted the following procedures to enable it to comply with, and demonstrate compliance with, the requirements in this area:

Gifts, business meals, or entertainment events that are given or received (“inducements”) and that exceed a value of £25 (40 euros or equivalent) must be reported through the PTA system within 20 business days.

PIL’s policy limits gifts to a value of £100 (150 euros or equivalent) per item.

No limit is applied to meals provided such meals are for business purposes, reasonable, and not lavish.

Entertainment provided to, or received from, suppliers (including brokers) is limited to a value of £150 (225 euros or equivalent). When receiving or providing entertainment to clients or potential clients, the limit of £150 (225 euros or equivalent) may be exceeded provided that such event is for business purposes, reasonable, and not lavish. Pre-clearance must be obtained from the PIL Compliance Officer.

Inducements exceeding these limits should be politely declined, explaining that PIL’s internal policies will not permit their acceptance.

There may be rare occasions where you are unexpectedly offered a gift or are entertained where the value exceeds the limits and it would be very discourteous to decline, or difficult to pay part of the bill yourself (such as in a members’ dining club). In these circumstances the gift should be handed in to the PIL Compliance Officer, who will arrange to give it to charity, or the entertainment reported immediately to the PIL Compliance Officer with an explanation of the circumstances.

Where the gift is below £100 (150 euros or equivalent) or the entertainment is below £150 (225 euros or equivalent) for any individual, no pre-clearance is necessary. Above these levels, pre-clearance is required from the PIL Compliance Officer. If you are in doubt as to whether limits might be exceeded, please err on the side of caution and seek pre-clearance.

Employees must disclose inducements in PTA where the value is above £25 (40 euros or equivalent).

Inducements below £25 (40 euros or equivalent), e.g., an umbrella, a casual drink, or a snack, need not be reported.

No more than six entertainment events per year, and no more than two events may be accepted from a single source. Meals are not included in this limit.

Where breaches of the inducement policy occur, sanctions may apply.

Employees are required to make an annual declaration that they have reported all reportable inducements given and received, or that they have not given or received any inducements during the course of the year.

Further detailed guidance on PIL’s Inducement Policy is available in the PIL Compliance Manual.

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407 Letter	2, 33	Employees
7-Day Rule	3, 19, 20	general rules for	23
90-Day Short-Term Rule	12, 19	personal political contributions	26
Access Person		Entertainment Policy	23
definition	5	Excessive trading (over 10 trades) prohibited	16
reporting requirements for	33	Exchange-traded index funds (ETFs)	6, 8, 17, 33, 34
reporting transactions/holdings	33	Exempted transactions	17
Ad Hoc Exemption	37	Family member accounts	15
Affiliated Entities	29	Family Members’ Conflict Policy	29
Analysts		Fiduciary	28
special rules	19, 20, 21	Gifts and Entertainment Policy	23
Annual Holdings Report	11, 34	Gifts donated as securities	11
Anti-bribery/Kickback Policy	25	Good Until Canceled (GTC) Limit orders	16
Anti-money Laundering Policy	32	Goods and services, purchasing	29
Anti-trust and other laws	23	Great-West Lifeco Inc.	2, 8, 12, 43
Appeal Procedures	38	Initial holdings report	34
Blackout Rule
trading by portfolio managers,		Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)	12
analysts, and CIOs	3, 20	Inside Information	1, 43, 44
Boycott laws	23	material, non-public information	13, 42
		policy statement	40
Bribes	25	sanctions for	39, 46
Broker accounts	2, 33	Inside Information List (Red List)	42
Business ethics	34	Insider Trading
CFA Institute Code of Ethics	31	definitions	41
CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of		explanations of	44
Professional Conduct	50	liability for	46
		penalties for	46
Chief Investment Officer		policy statement	40
special rules on trading	19
Closed-end fund	2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 48	Investment clubs	28
Code of Ethics Administrator	6	Involuntary transactions	11, 17
Code of Ethics Officer	6	Kickback Policy	25
Deputy Code of Ethics Officer	6	Large-/Mid-Cap Exemption	9
Code of Ethics Oversight Committee	6, 13, 16, 39	Limit Orders	16
Compliance and Appeal Procedures	37	Linked accounts	15
Computer and Network Use Policy	30	Lobbying Policy	26
Confidentiality	1, 27	Market timing prohibition	15
Confirmations and broker statements	2, 33	Marsh & McLennan (MMC) securities	8, 11, 17, 33
Conflicts of interest	1, 4, 23	Material information	1, 13, 40, 42, 43, 44, 46
Contra-Trading Rule	3, 21	Naked Options	17
Clearance Form	49	Negotiations prohibition	28
Corporate purchase of goods and services	29	Non-public information	1, 13, 40, 42, 43, 44, 46
Corporate/political contributions.	26	Non-Putnam affiliates (NPAs)	29
Currencies	7	Officer, prohibited to serve for another entity	27
Director, prohibited to serve for another entity	27	Ombudsman	35
Discretionary account	6, 10, 12	Options
Dividend reinvestment program	18	defined as securities	10
Education Requirements	36	naked	17

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Partner, prohibited to serve for another entity	27	90-Day Rule	15
Partnerships, covered in personal securities		One-Year Rule	15
transactions	7, 41	Putnam Variable Trusts	14
Personal securities transactions	3	Quarterly Report of Securities Transactions	2, 33
Personal Trading Assistant (PTA)		Records
2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 24, 27, 33, 34		accuracy records policy	29
Political activities, contributions, lobbying	26	retention policy	32
Portfolio managers, special rules on trading	19-22	Red List	42, 43
Portfolio Trading	21, 29	Reporting Requirements	33
Postiions outside Putnam	27, 34	Restricted List	7-9, 12, 37, 38
Power Corporation of Canada	2, 8, 12, 43	Sanctions	39
Power Financial Corporation	2, 8, 12, 43	Shares by subscription, pre-clearance	10
Pre-clearance	2, 6-12	Special rules for investment professionals	3, 19-22
sanctions for failure to pre-clear properly	39	Spread betting	17
Privacy Policy	31	Tender Offers	11
Private offerings and private placement		Trustee	7, 14, 27, 28, 41
pre-approval	13	Trusts	1, 7, 14, 41
Prohibited transactions	12-18	U. S. government obligations	7
Putnam mutual fund restrictions	2, 14, 15	Warrants	7, 8, 41

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1-617-292-1000
www.putnam.com

248344 5/08