1. Sovereign wealth funds: much ado about some money
- Author:
- Charles Kovacs
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- The first sovereign wealth fund (SWF) was established by Kuwait in 1953, and was followed by many others from 1973-4, after the first oil crisis. Since then, each major jump in oil and gas prices increased the number and size of SWFs; after 2000, countries with large trade surpluses also began to establish SWFs. By April 2009, SWFs had grown to $3-5 trillion of assets under management, invested mostly in high quality bonds. Equity investments have been a much smaller part of their portfolio and began to grow only in the 1990s. This trend has since accelerated with at least 698 documented equity investments between June 2005 and March 2009.
- Topic:
- Security, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Sovereign Wealth Funds
- Political Geography:
- Kuwait