Norway adds 26% to investment fund

Oslo: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s second-largest, said the value of its investments rose a record 26% last year as markets rebounded.

The Government Pension Fund — Global climbed by 613 billion kroner (€76.18bn) in 2009, as measured by a basket of foreign currencies, the central bank said.

The fund, worth 2.6 trillion kroner at the end of 2009, gained 34.3% on its stock holdings and 12.5% on bonds.

“The values have come back much sooner than expected,” Yngve Slyngstad, head of Norges Bank Investment Management, the central bank’s asset management arm, said in the statement.

“The parts of the fixed income markets that stopped working during the financial crisis gradually returned to more normal conditions.”