NORWAY - The value of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global increased to NOK 2.019trn (€253bn) in July, following a brief slump in June.

Latest figures from Norges Bank, which oversees the pension fund through Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), showed an increase in assets of around NOK 29bn over the month of July.

This follows a slump of almost NOK60bn in June, as the value of the fund fell from NOK2.052trn in May - the second consecutive increase following an initial four-month decline in the first part of 2008 - to a total of NOK1.990trn.

The figures showed the pension fund is now worth slightly more than at the end of 2007, when it was valued at NOK2.017trn.

However, Norwegian finance officials claimed in May the pension fund will increase its assets by more than 14% by the end of the year. (See earlier IPE article: Norway global fund "to grow 14%")

Figures showed in the first quarter of 2008 the Norwegian pension fund, often referred to as a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) though with a specific purpose, underperformed the benchmark by -0.81% following a return of -7.83% against the benchmark of -7.02%.

The poor result was driven by a -12.67% negative return on the fund's equity portfolio, equivalent to 47.8% of the fund's assets, while the fixed income portfolio worth 52.2% of assets achieved a return of 0.87%.

The pension fund's results for the second quarter will be released on August 26 2008.

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