Norway Wealth Fund Stays Course Despite $100 Billion Loss
By Terje Solsvik
OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund will adhere to broad risk diversification in the face of turbulent markets and uphold its long-term investment strategy despite incurring huge losses so far this year, the government said on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced hefty tariffs on imports to the United States last week, only to pause many of the reciprocal measures on Wednesday amid intense market volatility, leading to a partial rebound in global stocks.
Norway's fund, which owns about 1.5% of all globally listed stocks, has lost around 1.1 trillion Norwegian crowns ($101.38 billion) since the start of 2025 as asset prices fell sharply, the finance ministry said in an annual filing to parliament.
"Abrupt changes in strategy or ill-considered decisions must be avoided," Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
"In a time of greater unpredictability, broad risk diversification remains the best approach," he added.
The world's largest fund last year earned a record $222 billion from its investments but has repeatedly warned that strong returns won't last forever.
It has previously said that its decision to buy stocks during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis was highly profitable.
The fund will, however, seek to fulfill a long-held goal of cutting some of the smaller firms from its portfolio, which currently consists of stakes in more than 9,000 companies, partly to reduce the complexity of management, the government said.
The fund invests about 70% of its assets in equities, around 25% in bonds and the rest in unlisted real estate and renewable energy infrastructure.
The government did not propose any changes to ethics rules that ban the fund from investing in many of the world's major weapons makers. Reversing the ban has been the subject of political debate in Norway in recent months.
($1 = 10.8503 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
