Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global made a loss of -3.4 per cent in the first half of 2020, Norges Bank Investment Management has revealed.

This is equivalent to a loss of NOK 188bn. The return on the fund’s equity investment was -6.8 per cent. Investments in unlisted real estate returned -1.6 per cent, whereas the fixed income investments returned 5.1 per cent. The fund’s overall return was 11 basis points lower than the return on the benchmark index.

Commenting, NBIM deputy CEO, Trond Grande, said: “There were major fluctuations in the equity market in this period. The year started with optimism, but the outlook of the equity market quickly turned when the coronavirus started to spread globally. However, the sharp stock market decline of the first quarter was limited by a massive monetary and financial policy response.”

Economic measures around the world combined with a gradual reopening in several countries contributed to an increase in optimism among investors.

“Even though markets recovered well in the second quarter, we are still witnessing considerable uncertainty,” Grande added.

The krone depreciated against several of the main currencies during the first half of the year. The currency movements contributed to an increase in the fund’s value of NOK 672bn. In the first half of the year, NOK 167bn was withdrawn from the fund.

The fund had a value of NOK 10,400bn as at 30 June 2020, of which 69.6 per cent was invested in equities, 2.8 per cent in unlisted real estate, and 27.6 per cent in fixed income.

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