New figures indicate that the fund would be larger than it is at present if its managers simply had stashed the money in it (which comes from Norway’s oil revenues) in the bank.
As of late last year, the oil fund's own accounts showed that it had earned NOK 302 billion in share price gains during its first 10 years of existence.
By June of this year, the fund had suffered a loss on its stockholdings of NOK 137 billion. That cut earlier gains to NOK 165 billion.
The fund managers at the central bank aren't commenting on losses since June, but newspaper Aftenposten has calculated that the fund lost around NOK 175 billion in the third quarter based on its holdings and developments in its own reference index.
The index encompasses more than 7,000 companies around the world in which the oil fund has invested. At the end of June they were valued at NOK 1,031 billion, but the index's value lost 17 percent during the third quarter, or NOK 175 billion.
The fund may have sold off some shares and bought others, meaning components of the index may have changed. The fund only discloses its actual holdings once a year.
Vidar Korsberg Dalsbø said the oil fund's managers won't comment on its results until the third quarter report is released November 25.
Professor Øyvind Norli at business college BI said that a 10-year period with no gains is "highly unusual," but can't be ruled out. The fund, meanwhile, presumably has seen some growth through funding from new oil revenues.
