The value of Norway’s wealth fund jumps to $1.8 trillion

Founded in 1996 as a crisis savings pot, the fund owns about 1.5 percent of all the world’s listed stocks, and its size has grown to nearly four times Norway’s annual gross domestic product, far exceeding initial expectations.

The value of the fund is similar in size to the annual GDP of Australia, a country with five times the population of Norway.

And invest Norges Bank Investment Managementwhich manages the fund, has about 70 percent of its assets in global stocks, about 25 percent in bonds, and the rest in real estate and renewable energy facilities, with the bulk of its portfolio tracking global market indices.

Based on the current value of the Fund, a share for every man, woman and child living in… NorwayWith a population of 5.6 million, about 321 thousand dollars.

The fund’s largest individual holding was in U.S. Treasuries, which stood at $136 billion, or 7.5 percent of its size as of June 30, while the largest institutional holding was in Microsoft, at $41 billion, followed by Apple with 35 billion dollars. , and Nvidia, equivalent to $34 billion.

The fund reached a size of $900 billion in October 2019 and received further support in the coming years from global economic stimulus during the COVID-19 pandemic and rising natural gas prices following the Russia-Ukraine war.

The strength of the dollar and euro also contributed to the increase in the value of the fund, measured in Norwegian kroner.