Norway's wealth fund reports record loss of $164B

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Norway’s sovereign wealth fund on Tuesday reported a record loss of 1.64 trillion Norwegian crowns ($164.4 billion) for 2022.

The fund’s return on investment was at minus 14.1% for the year, according to the Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM).

The return was 0.88 percentage points better than the return on the benchmark index, equivalent to 118 billion kroner ($17.15 billion).

“The market was impacted by war in Europe, high inflation, and rising interest rates,” NBIM head Nicolai Tangen said in a statement.

“This negatively impacted both the equity market and bond market at the same time, which is very unusual. All the sectors in the equity market had negative returns, with the exception of energy.”

The return on the fund’s equity investments was at minus 15.3% in 2022 and minus 12.1% for fixed income investments.

The Oslo-based fund, established in 1996, had a value of 12.4 trillion crowns ($1.2 trillion) as of Dec. 31, 2022.

Norway’s currency weakened more than 11% against the dollar last year.