Posted on 05/03/2016 8:52:24 AM PDT by Lorianne
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, posted a negative return in the first quarter after being tapped by the government to balance its budget for the first time ever.
The fund registered a negative return of 0.6 percent, or 85 billion kroner ($10.4 billion, 9.2 billion euros), putting its value at 7.07 trillion kroner ($867 billion, 753 billion euros) at the end of the quarter, the central bank said on Thursday.
Shares, which accounted for 59.8 percent of the fund's portfolio, and real estate, which represented 3.1 percent, dragged the fund down, posting negative returns of 2.9 and 1.3 percent respectively.
Bonds, which made up the remaining 37 percent, meanwhile rose by 3.3 percent.
"The two first months of 2016 were characterised by high market volatility and concerns for a Chinese slowdown. The turbulence eased considerably in March," Trond Grand, a senior central bank official, said in a statement.
In a sign that the country's best years may be behind it, Norway's government took more money out than it put in for the first time in the fund's 20-year existence, siphoning off 25 billion kroner to balance its budget.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.no ...
Hmmm, I wonder what they’ve been spending so much money on.../s
Everything. The NOK fell from 5.8Nok/$ to 8.5Nok/$ and they changed their local prices on everything from produce to cars very little. The difference being made up in the VAT and tariffs. We have all been watching the train heeding towards bridge, but the Norsk seem to be indifferent.
I will give them credit for offer money to immigrants to go back. Not sure how many takers they’ve had. They don’t seem to be quite so determined as the Swedes to commit Hari Kari.
Ah, thanks. A high dependency on imports with little local production other than oil has put the screws on them, then.
And just that insignificancy has them kicking out the poor, poor “refugees”? So much for vying for the Humanitarian World Cup. ;-)
It costs money to finance population replacement. Who knew?
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