Norway oil wealth fund has worst year ever in 2008
The global financial crisis in 2008 presented major challenges to all parts of the portfolio of Norway’s vast fund for oil wealth, which posted a 23 percent loss on investment for 2008.
The Norwegian central Norges Bank reported in a press release Wednesday that the fund lost 633 billion NOK, or about 71 billion EUR, on investment during 2008. The size of the Government Pension Fund-Global, formerly called the oil fund, was 2.275 trillion NOK (256 billion EUR) at the end of 2008.
The fund was created to invest Norway’s excess oil wealth abroad to not cause the domestic economy to overheat. It typically invests about 60 percent of its capital in stocks in more than 7000 companies worldwide, with the remainder in government-backed bonds.
