All Norwegians Are Crown Millionaires, Thanks to High Oil Prices (VIDEOS)
Don't you wish your mum or dad or both parents were Norwegian? That' because if they were, the family then would have been millionaires.
The event when all Norwegians become theoretical crown millionaires happened on Wednesday when Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, which was established in 1990, rose in value to 5.11 trillion crowns or $828.66 billion. With a population estimate of 5,096,300, that made everyone a millionaire.
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The fund is the owner of 1 per cent of the world's stocks and has bonds and real estate on its portfolio, partly explaining why Norway is prosperous while many European nations were sinking under the weight of national debts.
Thomas Sevang, the spokesman of the central bank, said it was the first time that the fund reached the equivalent of a million crowns each, thanks to the rise in oil prices since Norway, which struck oil in the North Sea in 1969, is the world seventh largest oil exporters.
However, the fund managers are saving the windfall for a rainy day and are resisting the temptation to splurge the bonanza due to the fluctuation of oil prices. To avoid the negative impact of oil price instability, Norway invested the cash overseas and the government spends only 4 per cent of the fund in Norway each year.
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The good news for all Norwegians is that the fund, now equivalent to 183 per cent of the country's gross domestic product in 2013, is expected to further balloon and peak to 220 per cent of its current value by around 2030.
Commenting on the large funds available for Norwegian citizens, DNB Markets chief economist Oeystein Doerum said, quoted by Reuters, "The fund is a success in the sense that parliament has managed to put aside money for the future. There are many examples of countries that have not managed that."
However, one downside to everybody technically being millionaires is that some Norwegians are now reluctant to work since 20 per cent of the country's population of working age receive some form of social insurance rather than compensation from employment. Norway has an unemployment rate of 3.3 per cent.
