Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) made a return of 14.5 per cent in 2021, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has revealed.

NBIM, which is responsible for the investments of the GPFG, said this equates to NOK 1,580bn. The return on the fund’s equity investments was 20.8 per cent, the return on the fixed-income investments was -1.9 per cent, whereas investments in unlisted real estate returned 13.6 per cent.

The return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was 4.2 per cent. The fund’s return was 0.74 percentage points higher than the return on the benchmark index, equivalent to 76 billion kroner.

NBIM CEO, Nicolai Tangen, said: “The good results are mainly due to very strong developments in the equity market throughout the year. There was good return in all sectors, but the investments in technology and financials performed particularly well. The investments in technology returned an impressive 30.2 per cent.”

Real estate also performed strongly in 2021, after a demanding year in 2020 due to the pandemic.

“The real estate sector has had a good recovery, with listed real estate companies having performed particularly well with a return of 26.8 percent,” Tangen said.
The krone strengthened against several major currencies in course of the year. Currency movements contributed to a decrease in the fund’s value of NOK 25bn. In 2021, NOK 129bn was withdrawn from the fund.

The fund had a value of NOK 12,340bn as at 31 December 2021. Seventy-two per cent of the fund was invested in equities, 25.4 per cent in fixed income, 2.5 per cent in unlisted real estate, and 0.1 per cent in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.

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