Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), which is managed by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), made a return of 4.3 per cent in the third quarter, equivalent to NOK 412bn.

The return on the fund’s equity investment was 5.7 per cent, while investments in unlisted real estate returned 0.9 per cent. Fixed income investments returned 1.1 per cent. The fund’s overall return was 3 basis points lower than the return on the benchmark index.

NBIM CEO, Nicolai Tangen, said: “The financial markets were still influenced by uncertainty related to the coronavirus. Regardless, equity markets returned well, mostly due to strong performance in the technology sector in US.”

The positive return came after a negative return of -3.4 per cent in the first half of 2020.

The Norwegian krone appreciated against several of the main currencies during the quarter. The currency movements contributed to a decrease in the fund’s value of NOK 97bn. In the third quarter of the year, NOK 105bn was withdrawn from the fund.

The fund had a value of NOK 10,610bn as at 30 September 2020, of which 70.7 per cent was invested in equities, 2.7 per cent in unlisted real estate, and 26.6 per cent in fixed income.

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