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The Johan Sverdrup oil field in the North Sea is the third largest on the Norwegian continental shelf
Photo: Carina Johansen / dpa / NTB scanpix
Norway was able to look forward to good figures last year.
The state pension fund abroad, also known as the oil fund, has again achieved strong profits in the first half of 2021.
As the Norwegian Bank announced, the return was 9.4 percent, which corresponds to 990 billion Norwegian kroner (95 billion euros).
On June 30, the fund, which is considered to be the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, had a total value of 11.67 trillion kroner (1.11 trillion euros).
"Equity investments made the most positive contribution to returns in the first half of the year," said Nicolai Tangen, head of Norges Bank Investment Management.
Investments in the energy and financial sectors and in technology companies would have paid off in particular.
Norway's pension fund acts as an insurance for future generations when the income from the oil industry disappears.
It is fed with money from oil and gas production, administered by the central bank on behalf of the Treasury and invests in thousands of companies worldwide, including large corporations such as Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.
Investment policy is simplified
In the past six months, the equivalent of 14.1 billion euros was withdrawn from the fund.
72.4 percent was invested in stocks, 25.1 percent in bonds and 0.1 percent in unlisted infrastructure and renewable energy.
The high profits are not surprising.
Last year the fund generated a profit of 1.07 trillion Norwegian kroner, which translates to around 102 billion euros.
The rate of return was twelve percent, compared to 42 percent for technology stocks.
In April, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance announced in Oslo that the sovereign wealth fund wanted to simplify its investment policy.
Accordingly, the fund should invest less in small companies in the future and be cautious about new investments in emerging markets.
This should also affect companies from Saudi Arabia.
bam / dpa