October 2025
30Oct

World’s largest sovereign wealth fund returns 5.8% amid AI optimism

Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund — the largest of its kind in the world — on Wednesday reported a 5.8% return during the third quarter, powered by strong stock market gains and AI optimism. Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) manages the fund on behalf of the Norwegian population. Set up in the 1990s to invest excess revenues from Norway’s oil and gas industry, the enormous Government Pension Fund Global is currently invested in assets across 70 countries, including almost 9,000 companies. Its...

October 30, 2025
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January 2024
23Jan

​Finance Norway calls for change in workplace pensions

In response to December’s government proposals to reform Norway’s pension system to make it fairer, Finance Norway (Finans Norge) has called for changes to occupational pensions and measures to strengthen individual pension plans. Finans Norge said it took part last Thursday in the Standing Committee on Labour and Social Affairs’ hearing in parliament (Storting) on the government’s report to parliament on proposals for changes to the pension system. “Finans Norge supports the government’s proposal to strengthen the financial and social sustainability...

January 23, 2024
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October 2023
25Oct

World’s largest sovereign wealth fund loses $34 billion as all asset classes fall in third quarter

Norway’s $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, on Tuesday reported losses of 2.1% in the third quarter, as all asset classes fell in value. The so-called Government Pension Fund Global returned a loss of 374 billion Norwegian kroner ($34 billion) in the third quarter, citing a weaker three-month period, compared with the first half of the year. The results were still 0.17 percentage point stronger than the return on the fund’s benchmark index. The fund last reported a quarterly loss...

October 25, 2023
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July 2023
23Jul

Early Retirement Provision for Elderly Displaced Workers

By Herman Kruse & Andreas Steinvall Myhre This paper studies the economic effects on re-employment and program substitution behavior among elderly displaced workers who exogenously lose eligibility for their early retirement option. We use detailed Norwegian matched employer-employee data containing information on bankruptcy dates and individual income, wealth, pensions and social security benefits. As job displacement before a certain age cut-off results in the loss of eligibility for early retirement benefits between ages 62–67 years in Norway, we are able...

July 23, 2023
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February 2023
01Feb

Norway’s gigantic sovereign wealth fund loses a record $164 billion, citing ‘very unusual’ year

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund on Tuesday reported a record loss of 1.64 trillion Norwegian kroner ($164 billion) for the whole of 2022, citing “very unusual” market conditions. The so-called Government Pension Fund Global, among the world’s largest investors, returned -14.1% last year, which it said was 0.88 percentage points better than the return on its benchmark index. “The market was impacted by war in Europe, high inflation, and rising interest rates. This negatively impacted both the equity market and bond market...

February 1, 2023
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August 2022
24Aug

What we can learn from the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund

IF you’re cautious about where stock markets are headed next, you’re in good company. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund - the largest in the world - has reported it had a challenging time in the first half of the year and its chief executive Nicolai Tangen is unconvinced the bear market for shares is over quite yet. So what can we learn from this? Norway’s sovereign wealth fund was started in 1996 in order to invest the proceeds of a burgeoning...

August 24, 2022
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November 2021
05Nov

Norway’s largest pension fund divests from 14 arms firms

Norway's largest pension fund said on Thursday that it has divested from 14 nuclear and regular arms-producing companies. Oslo-based KLP said it made the decision after reviewing its ethical criteria on weapons. "This will primarily mean companies that produce certain types of weapons which, by their nature, violate fundamental humanitarian principles,'' the fund said in a statement. "The criterion applies mainly to nuclear weapons and cluster munitions, as well as anti-personnel mines," it said in a statement. Which companies is KLP divesting from? As...

November 5, 2021
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February 2021
08Feb

Norwegian Parties Agree to Expand Workplace Pension Plans

Norway’s ruling three-party coalition agreed with the opposition Progress Party to remove restrictions on private occupational pension plans so they can be extended to young and part-time workers. The changes would require employers to pay contributions to pension funds to those who work as little as one day a week, workers who earn less than the current basic amount under the national insurance system -- now at 101,351 kroner ($11,883) per year -- and to staff younger than 20. The...

February 8, 2021
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04Feb

Gulf’s pension funds can learn something from Norway

The initial set of 2020 financial results from listed companies offers an opportunity to evaluate not just their performance but the strength – or otherwise - of their operational strategies. This is due to multiple considerations, most notably the exceptional situation created by the pandemic and the challenges – and opportunities - imposed on individual economies and the global economy as a whole. What we see are some entities taking advantage of the crisis to turn in substantial profits,...

February 4, 2021
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December 2020

15Dec

​Norway maps cost of extending pension coverage amid clash

The Norwegian government has opened a public consultation on the long-held plan to broaden mandatory occupational pension coverage by removing the lower earnings threshold at which employers make contributions, but worker and employer representations are in sharp disagreement over the terms. The Ministry of Finance published the report it received from the working group convened to come up with a plan on savings “from the first krone” in defined contribution mandatory occupational pension (obligatorisk tjenestepensjon, OTP) schemes. The...

December 15, 2020
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