Norway's sovereign wealth fund loses $164 billion in 2022
War, high inflation, rising interest rates negatively impacted equity and bond markets
Oslo: Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said Tuesday it recorded a loss of 1,637 billion Norwegian kroner ($164 billion) in 2022, citing volatile markets.
"The market was impacted by war in Europe, high inflation, and rising interest rates. This negatively impacted both the equity market and bond market at the same time, which is very unusual," Nicolai Tangen, CEO Nicolai Tangen of Norges Bank Investment Management which manages the fund, said in a statement.
The return on investment was -14.1 per cent.
"All the sectors in the equity market had negative returns, with the exception of energy," Tangen said.
At the end of 2022, the fund which is financed from taxes paid by the nation's oil and gas industry still amounted to 12.43 trillion kroner (about $1.2 trillion).
That is still higher than the 12.34 trillion kroner the fund held at the end of 2021, thanks to 1.09 trillion kroner in new tax inflows.
Currency fluctuations also boosted the fund's value by 642 billion kroner.
According to the fund, 69.8 per cent of assets were in equities, 27.5 per cent in fixed income, 2.7 per cent in real estate, and 0.1 per cent in renewable energy infrastructure.