Norway’s sovereign wealth fund suffered a 1.9% loss on its investments in the first quarter, with three of the Government Pension Fund Global’s (GPFG) four asset classes ending the period in the red, despite its manager narrowly beating the benchmark.
Reporting returns for January to March, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) said this morning that the GPFG’s equity investments ended the period with a 2.6% loss, while fixed income investments lost 0.2% and unlisted renewable energy infrastructure lost 1.9%, with unlisted real estate standing out as the only asset class to gain, returning 1.2%.
NBIM said: “The fund’s return was 0.01 percentage point higher than the return on the benchmark index.”
The extent to which NBIM adds value through its limited scope for active management is regularly scrutinised by the Norwegian government, including via an officially commissioned report by two academics in 2025.
Trond Grande, NBIM’s deputy chief executive officer, said today: “The result reflects a quarter with challenging market conditions.
“We saw limited impact on fixed income and real estate, but it was the decline in equities, especially among large US technology companies, that determined the outcome,” he said.
By the end of March, the GPFG’s value fell to NOK19.998trn (€1.82trn) from NOK21.268trn at the end of 2026, according to the report. However, the fund has recovered somewhat this month, with the latest value on the NBIM’s website standing at NOK20.569trn.
