Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, earned 131 billion euros in the first half

2023-08-16 06:38:39

By Le Figaro with AFP

Posted 37 minutes ago

In six months, the fund has almost erased the colossal loss suffered last year due to the war in Ukraine and the global economic deterioration. Roland Magnusson / Roland Magnusson – stock.adobe.com

This performance helped bring the fund’s value to the dizzying sum of 1,332 billion euros at the end of June.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, earned 1,501 billion crowns (131 billion euros) in the first half, boosted by stock markets, the Norwegian central bank, responsible for its management, announced on Tuesday. This performance represents a return of 10% and helped bring the value of the fund to the dizzying sum of 15.299 billion crowns (1332 billion euros) at the end of June.

In six months, the fund has virtually erased the colossal loss (1637 billion crowns) suffered last year due to the war in Ukraine and the global economic deterioration. Supposed to grow the oil and gas revenues of the Norwegian state to finance the future expenditure of the generous welfare state, it is mainly invested in equities (71.1% of the portfolio), bonds (27.1%) and to a lesser extent in real estate (2.3%).

The largest fund in the world in front of two Chinese funds

Investments in equities experienced a return of 13.66% thanks in particular to technology and luxury stocks, those in bonds had a return of 2.25%, while real estate investments, affected by the rise in interest rates interest, lost 4.57%. The Bank of Norway was originally due to publish the half-year results on Wednesday morning but these were mistakenly sent to the media on Tuesday evening.

Since the beginning of the year, the enormous woolen stocking has also benefited, to the tune of 980 billion crowns, from the weakening of the Norwegian krone which has mechanically increased the value of assets held in dollars, euros and other currencies. foreign. The state has also supplemented its coffers with 389 billion crowns. In total, the fund therefore saw its value swell by 2,870 billion crowns over the first six months of the year. According to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is the largest in the world, just ahead of two Chinese funds.