Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 28th of September 2017 to The Sounding Line.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund recently became the first sovereign fund to exceed $1 trillion dollars in value. Not only does this make Norway’s sovereign wealth fund the largest in the world, but as the following chart from Statista.com shows, it is the only western country to have a sovereign fund ranked among the world’s largest:

“The country (Norway) is a major oil producer and it transferred its first revenue to the fund in May 1996. Since then it has grown to become one of the world’s biggest investors in stocks, owning $667 billion of shares in over 9,000 companies worldwide including Apple and Microsoft.

“Recent growth has been driven by climbing stock markets and currency shifts and the current size of the fund is mind boggling. $1 trillion is around the same size as the Mexican economy and it equates to more than $190,000 for every one of Norway’s 5.2 million citizens.”

You will find more statistics at Statista

While this represents a significant achievement for Norway, as we first discussed here, low oil prices and expensive social services are beginning to eat away at the economic fundamentals that have driven Norway’s success. Per capita tax revenues have plunged, and for the first time ever, the Norwegian government drew funds from its sovereign wealth fund in order to keep its budget balanced.

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