Norway SWF Has Best Return

The Government Pension Fund Global returned 2.6 percent, or 202 billion kroner, in the second quarter of 2017.

Equity investments returned 3.4 percent, while fixed-income investments returned 1.1 percent. Investments in unlisted real estate returned 2.1 percent. The total return on investments was 0.3 percentage point higher than the return on the benchmark index.

“The stock markets have performed particularly well so far this year, and the fund’s return in the two first quarters was 6.5 percent. This gives a total return of 499 billion kroner, which is the best half-year return measured in Norwegian kroner in the history of the fund. We cannot expect such returns in the future. The record-high return is primarily due to the fact that the fund has become so large”, says Trond Grande, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Norges Bank Investment Management.

In the second quarter, 16 billion kroner was withdrawn from the fund by the government. The krone appreciated against the main currencies during the quarter. This decreased the value of the fund by 32 billion kroner.

The fund had a market value of 8,020 billion kroner as at 30 June 2017, of which 65.1 percent was invested in equities, 32.4 percent in fixed income and 2.5 percent in unlisted real estate.

Source: Norges Bank Investment Management