Norway's sovereign wealth fund loses US$56.4bn in 2018

OSLO: Norway's sovereign wealth fund posted a negative return of 485 billion kroner (56.4 billion US dollars) in 2018 due to "volatile markets," the fund said on Wednesday.

Equity, fixed-income and unlisted real estate investments returned -9.5 percent, 0.6 percent and 7.5 percent respectively in the year, according to a statement of the fund, formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) and ranked as the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund.

The fund said its market value fluctuated widely in 2018, a year dominated by volatile markets. There was a positive return in the second and third quarters, but a weak equity market in the first and fourth quarters reduced the fund's overall results.

"Although performance was weak in 2018, the long-term return has been good and higher than the return on the benchmark index," said Oystein Olsen, Chair of the Executive Board of Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank that is responsible for managing the fund.

The fund had a market value of nearly 8.26 trillion kroner at the end of 2018, of which 66.3 percent were invested in equities, 3.0 percent in unlisted real estate and 30.7 percent in fixed income, according to the fund.