Norway’s central bank, also known as Norges Bank, is located in Oslo, Norway. The bank is responsible for managing the country’s monetary policy and overseeing its financial system.
Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund, known as the Government Pension Fund Global, recently reported a first-quarter profit of 1.21 trillion kroner ($109.9 billion). This impressive result was driven by strong returns on its investments in technology stocks.
Trond Grande, the fund’s deputy CEO, highlighted the strong performance of equity investments in the tech sector during the first quarter. The fund’s value stood at 17.7 trillion kroner at the end of March, making it the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
While the fund’s equity and fixed income investments performed well in the first quarter, real estate investments experienced weak results leading to an overall negative result. The return on equity investments was 9.1%, while fixed income investments yielded -0.4% and investments in unlisted real estate returned -0.5%.
Investments in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure saw a return of -11.4%. Despite these results, the fund’s return was only 0.1 percentage point lower than the benchmark index.
Established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of Norway’s oil and gas sector, the sovereign wealth fund has invested in over 8,800 companies in more than 70 countries worldwide. As one of the largest investors globally, the fund continues to play a significant role in the international financial market.