Norway Oil Fund Returns 7.6%

OSLO--Norway's sovereign-wealth fund, the world's biggest, returned 7.6% on its investments in 2014, as all asset classes contributed positively, and increased its purchases of real estate.

Norges Bank Investment Management, the arm of the central bank that manages the fund, said Friday that the gain equated to 544 billion Norwegian kroner ($66.84 billion). The total value of the fund at Dec. 31 was NOK6.431 trillion.

Equity investments returned 7.9% in 2014, while fixed-income investments gained 6.9%, NBIM said.

"2014 was a good year for the fund, with positive results for all asset classes," said Yngve Slyngstad, chief executive of NBIM. "Strong stock markets in the first half of the year and falling yields made a positive contribution to the results."

The management said the oil fund, also known as the Government Pension Fund Global, had increased its holding in bonds issued by Japan, Spain and the U.K., and decreased its holding of those of Canada, the U.S. and Germany.

The fund held 61.3% in equities, 36.5% in fixed-income assets and 2.2% in real estate at the end of the year.

"Never before have we made as many property investments as we did last year, and we will continue to step up these investments in the coming years," said Mr. Slyngstad.

The oil fund was set up in the 1990s to convert Norway's vast oil wealth to global financial assets, partly to shield the country's budget from oil-price fluctuations. The fund has expanded more than tenfold in the past decade and is expected to be worth NOK7.532 trillion by 2020.

Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at [e-mail]

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