Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has reported a return of -14.4 per cent for Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) in the first half of the year.

NBIM, which is responsible for the management of the investments of the GPFG, said this equates to NOK 1,1680bn.

The return on the fund’s equity investments was -17.0 per cent and fixed income investments was -9.3 per cent, whereas investments in unlisted real estate returned 7.1 per cent. The return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was -13.3 per cent.

Despite the poor performance, NBIM said that the fund’s return was 1.14 percentage points better than the return on the benchmark index, equivalent to NOK 156bn.

“The market has been characterised by rising interest rates, high inflation, and war in Europe. Equity investments are down by as much as 17 per cent. Technology stocks have done particularly poorly with a return of -28 per cent,” NBIM CEO, Nicolai Tangen, said.

All sectors have seen negative returns, with the exception of energy, NBIM stated.
“In the first half of the year, the energy sector returned 13 per cent. We have seen sharp price increases for oil, gas, and refined products,” Tangen said.

The krone depreciated against several of the main currencies during the quarter.

The currency movements contributed to an increase in the fund’s value of NOK 642bn. In the first half of the year, inflow into the fund amounted to NOK 356bn.

The fund had a value of NOK 11,657bn as at 30 June 2022; 68.5 per cent of the fund was invested in equities, 28.3 per cent in fixed income, 3.0 per cent in unlisted real estate, and 0.1 per cent in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.

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