OSLO: Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, defended on Wednesday its strategy of chasing returns greater than market benchmarks, arguing the benefits outweighed the associated risk and cost.
The $834 billion fund, worth more than twice the country's annual gross domestic product, is invested in foreign stocks, bonds and real estate to share the wealth from oil and gas production with future generations.
Managed by a unit of the central bank, the fund aims to beat global equity and fixed income indexes by a quarter percentage point a year by taking on added risk. That includes picking stocks it expects to deliver long-term returns. Following criticism by some academics of the fund's strategy, the central bank had promised more transparency, including an annual report analysing its risk-adjusted returns.
"The question is whether it cost too much or whether we had to take too much risk to obtain that quarter percentage point.
This report shows it didn't cost much and we didn't have to take much risk to achieve it," Chief Executive Yngve Slyngstad said. Under a mandate from parliament, the fund places about 60 percent of its assets in stocks, 35 percent in fixed income and has a target of five percent in real estate.
Economics professor Egil Matsen, who was recently appointed to supervise the fund and its managers, last month told Reuters it should continue its bid to outperform global markets despite the added risks involved.
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