According to official government data, in 2022, Government Pension Fund Global, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, suffered a record loss of 1.64 trillion kroner ($164.4 billion).

According to the figures, the fund returned a negative return on investment of -14.1%. The fund’s fixed income portfolio fell 12.1%, as its equities holdings had a 15.3% loss.

Nicolai Tangen, CEO of the entity that manages the fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, said, “The market was impacted by war in Europe, high inflation, and rising interest rates. This negatively impacted both the equity market and bond market at the same time, which is very unusual. All the sectors in the equity market had negative returns, with the exception of energy.”

Even as the fund suffered a record loss, the fund’s overall value increase by 89 billion kroner ($8.9 billion) over the year, due in large part to 1.1 trillion kroner ($109 billion) in inflows. Inflows over 2022 set a record, and were about three times as large as the previous high, seen in 2008. Fluctuations in currency values also added roughly 642 billion kroner ($64 billion) in value to the fund.

Due in part to its losses, the fund was unseated from its position as the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund by China Investment Corporation, as it closed out the year with a value of 12.4 trillion kroner ($1.2 trillion) on December 31st, 2022.

Due to the fact the fund invests the revenues from oil and gas sales by the Norwegian government, inflows benefitted in 2022 from the fall in Russian energy sales throughout the EU, which combined with the surges in energy prices substantially increased revenues.

The fund owns the equivalent of 1.3% of all listed equities, in stakes spread across about 9,300 companies.