OSLO, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Norway's sovereign wealth fund returned 1.8 percent, or 167 billion kroner (19.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter of 2018, the fund said on Tuesday.
Equity, fixed-income and unlisted real estate investments returned 2.7 percent, 0.0 percent and 1.9 percent respectively in the quarter, according to a statement of the fund, formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) and ranked as the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund.
Global stock markets had a positive development in the second quarter and thereby reversed the negative development at the beginning of the year, the fund said.
"North American and European stocks had a positive development in the quarter despite the prospect of increased trade barriers," said Trond Grande, deputy CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, which is the part of the Norwegian central bank that is responsible for managing the fund.
In the second quarter, 2 billion kroner was withdrawn from the fund, it said.
"In June, the fund had its first inflow since 2015. For the quarter as a whole we still had outflow," Grande said.
The fund had a market value of 8,337 billion kroner as at June 30, 2018, of which 66.8 percent were invested in equities, 2.6 percent in unlisted real estate and 30.6 percent in fixed income, it said. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.47 kroner)
