750 billion dollar question: Norway voters decide future fate of massive oil fund — RT Business

750 billion dollar question: Norway voters decide future fate of massive oil fund — RT Business:

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Statoil - the source of the wealth (Reuters / Koranyi Balazs)

The new center-right government, expected to assume power in Norway after Monday’s election, will be faced with a high-profile dilemma other European countries can only dream of. Namely, what to do with $750 billion dollars?

Established in 1990 as a repository for the country’s oil profits, the Government Pension Fund has become the biggest sovereign investment body in the world, after quadrupling in value since 2005. If divided up between the country’s 4.9 million people, it would leave each Norwegian with $145,000 in cash.

In placid Norway – where economic growth is expected to round out at three percent, while the rest of Europe’s economies shrink – the fate of the windfall has dominated the campaign, feeding on an anxiety that comes with having more money than the country obviously needs, and a fear of not capitalizing on a historic opportunity."

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