The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) – the biggest sovereign fund in the world – has decreased the investments into the Russian assets (shares and bonds) by one third, reads the annual report of the Fund released on Friday.
By the end of 2014 the Fund owned the Russian assets with a total market value of 32.1 Norwegian crowns ($4.3 billion). A year earlier before the Ukrainian conflict the Russian portfolio of the Fund had 47.7 billion crowns ($7.9 billion).
“Before slump of oil prices, the international sanctions and loss of confidence among the participants of the market have led to a significant devaluation of Russian currency,” reads the report,
Reduction of Russian assets in GPFG is accounted for by reduction of their market value and Ruble devaluation, head of the Fund Ingve Slingstad explained to Reuters. He added that the Fund almost did not trade Russian rubles since early 2014, because it is inadvisable to buy in the current situation and it is hard to sell now, because of insufficient demand.