Government Pension Fund Global: Negative returns in a challenging year

1 February 2023

In 2022, the Government Pension Fund Global returned -14.1 percent, equivalent to -1,637 billion kroner.

The return on the fund’s equity investments was -15.3 percent, the return on the fixed income investments was -12.1 percent, whereas investments in unlisted real estate returned 0.1 percent. The return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was 5.1 percent.

The fund’s return was 0.88 percentage points better than the return on the benchmark index, equivalent to 118 billion kroner.

“The market was impacted by war in Europe, high inflation, and rising interest rates. This negatively impacted both the equity market and bond market at the same time, which is very unusual. All the sectors in the equity market had negative returns, with the exception of energy”, says CEO Nicolai Tangen of Norges Bank Investment Management.

The krone depreciated against several of the main currencies during the year. The currency movements contributed to an increase in the fund’s value of 642 billion kroner. Inflow into the fund amounted to 1,085 billion kroner.

The fund had a value of 12,429 billion kroner as of 31 December 2022. 69.8 percent of the fund was invested in equities, 27.5 percent in fixed income, 2.7 percent in unlisted real estate, and 0.1 percent in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.

Source: NBIM