Norway announced on Thursday that the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, lost $74 billion (- 4.9%) during the first quarter of the year due to the market turmoil caused by geopolitical tensions in Ukraine.
According to the country’s central bank, which operates the $1.3 trillion fund, the world’s largest single shareholder lost 5.2% on stocks and 4.8% on fixed income.
“The first quarter has been characterized by geopolitical turbulence, which has also affected the markets,” the deputy head of the fund, Trond Grande, said in a statement, as quoted by Bloomberg.
In February, Norway decided to drop Russian assets from the fund in response to Moscow’s launch of a military operation in Ukraine. However, it ran into problems with actually implementing the decision after Moscow barred foreigners from executing trades on its stock markets.