The Ministry of Finance has defined a benchmark portfolio which consists of specific equities and fixed income instruments. These securities reflect the owner's investment strategy for the Government Pension Fund (former Petroleum Fund) . The benchmark portfolio is important for managing risk in the Fund and for measuring Norges Bank's management performance.

Composition of the benchmark portfolio

The Fund has a benchmark which is composed of stocks in the FTSE equity indices in 46 countries and of the bonds in the Barclays Global Aggregate bond indices in the currencies of 21 countries.

Equities shall account for 60 per cent of the Fund's strategic benchmark portfolio. The equity portion of the benchmark consists of equities listed on European exchanges (50 per cent), equities listed in the Americas and Africa (35 per cent) and Asia/Oceania (15 per cent).

Fixed income instruments shall account for 40 per cent of the strategic benchmark portfolio. The fixed income portion of the benchmark shall consist of fixed income instruments issued in European currencies (60 per cent), American currencies (35 per cent) and Asian currencies (5 per cent).

Stratgic benchmark portfolio (percentage shares) 

	Asset class	Europe	Americas / Africa	Asia / Oceania
Fixed income instruments	40	60	35	5
Equities	60	50	35	15

Asset classes and regional weightings in the strategic benchmark are changed on an ongoing basis as a result of changes in market prices for the securities in the benchmark. New capital is normally transferred to the Fund at the end of each month. This capital is used to restore the asset classes and regional weightings in the benchmark as closely as possible to the strategic weightings, providing this does not necessitate selling securities in the existing portfolio. Thus, there may be minor differences between the weightings in the strategic benchmark described in the table above and those in the actual benchmark even after the transfer of new capital. It is the actual benchmark that provides the basis for managing risk and measuring the performance of the Fund.