ANKARA

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, recorded its largest ever loss of 1.68 trillion Norwegian crowns ($174 billion) in the first half of 2022, the Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) said Wednesday.

The Oslo-based fund returned minus 14.4% from January-June, according to NBIM, which cited rate hikes, high inflation and Russia’s was on Ukraine.

"The market has been characterized by rising interest rates, high inflation, and war in Europe," said Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of NBIM.

The fund lost 17% in equity investments, 13.3% in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure investments and 9.3% in fixed-income investments.

The return was 1.14 percentage points higher than the return on the benchmark index, it said.

"Technology stocks have done particularly poorly with a return of -28%,” said Tangen.

The fund's market value was 11.6 trillion kroner ($1.3 trillion) at the end of the first half of 2022.