Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) made a return of 6.3 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has announced.

This equates to a return of NOK 1,210bn bringing the fund value to NOK 17,719bn as of 31 March 2024. Currency movements also impacted the fund’s value, as the krone weakened against several of the main currencies during Q1, leading to an increase in the fund’s value of NOK 647bn. Furthermore, inflow into the fund amounted to NOK 96bn in Q1.

The return on the fund’s equity investments was 9.1 per cent, the return on the fixed income investments was -0.4 per cent, whereas investments in unlisted real estate returned -0.5 per cent. The return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was -11.4 per cent.

The fund’s return was 0.1 percentage point lower than the return on the benchmark index. NBIM said the relative return was good for equity and fixed-income investments, but this was offset by weak results from real estate, leading to a negative result overall.

"Our equity investments had a very strong return in the first quarter, particularly driven by the tech sector,” NBIM deputy CEO, Trond Grande, commented.

At the end of March, 72.1 per cent of the fund was invested in equities, 26 per cent in fixed income, 1.8 per cent in unlisted real estate, and 0.1 per cent in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.

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