The return on the Government Petroleum Fund in the third quarter of 2000 was 0.3 per cent measured against the currency basket corresponding to the composition of the Fund’s benchmark portfolio. The return for the first three quarters of the year was 2.7 per cent, and the return for the twelve-month period to the end of the third quarter was 10.8 per cent. The real annualised return for the past three-year period is 7.9 per cent.

In the third quarter of 2000, Norges Bank achieved a return on the Petroleum Fund that was 0.03 percentage point higher than the return on the benchmark portfolio defined by the Ministry of Finance. The combined excess return for the first three quarters was 0.52 percentage point.

As in the previous quarter, international equity markets showed a negative trend, while markets for fixed income instruments showed a distinctly positive trend. The third quarter returns on the equity and fixed income portfolio were -1.0 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

On 29 September 2000, NOK 45 billion was transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Petroleum Fund’s international equity and fixed income portfolios.