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With the phenomenal growth in sovereign wealth funds over the past thirty or so years – but especially in the last ten – it’s good to stop and take a look at where this new investment phenomenon is at today in 2010.
Here’s a list of the current top 10 sovereign wealth funds around the world.* Also note, though, that some countries (such as China) have more than one sovereign wealth fund, so the total of all domestic sovereign wealth funds is added to provide the total.
Biggest Sovereign Wealth Funds in 2010
.
1. United Arab Emirates – Total Assets in $Billions: 738.9
2. China – $732.5 B
3. Saudi Arabia – $436.3 B
4. Norway – $395.0 B
5. Singapore – $332.5 B
6. Russia – $219.9 B
7. Kuwait – $202.8 B
8. Hong Kong – $193.4 B
9. Libya – $65.0 B
10. Qatar - $62.0 B
Were you expecting to see the U.S. in there? Japan? Well, the U.S. sovereign wealth fund ranks in at #12 based on capital size. But Japan’s not even close. Canada also has a decent-sized sovereign wealth fund through the Alberta Heritage Fund (accumulating all the riches from Alberta’s oil sands), but still ranks below Bahrain.
What do all these countries have in common? They either (1) export oil and accumulate oil profits; or (2) export other goods for international consumption at cheap discounts using a lowered domestic currency (eg., China, Singapore, Hong Kong).
So, we often talk about the U.S. being the “richest” country in the world, but we now know it also carries the most debt of any country around the world – and if you go by the size of the amount of money the country has available to invest – it’s the United Arab Emirates killing it at the top of the list.
*Figures taken from the Sovereign Wealth Funds Institute, updated December 2009.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The Norway sovereign wealth fund comes out to approximately $100,000 per each citizen of Norway. That is pretty intriguing. If they could generate 3%-4% on this fund, they could easily give each Nowegian $3-$4K annually as a dividend.
Now there’s a thought … I agree, Norway intrigues me as a case of a developed/ “first world” country that made a (very recent) fortune off of oil. Could be a great place to immigrate to…;) Just reading though, that they had to store their wealth in an investment fund (to get bigger) because if they spend it domestically, it shoots up the value of the kroner and kills all future exports. What kind of a sick trap is that? Something wrong with this picture….
Actually Alaska does have a sovereign wealth fund. It distributes a portion of its earnings from its “permanent fund” to residents each year. I think it’s the only “permanent fund” that does that.
On a side note I do know a few Norwegian students ( or rather did know) studying in the US, and they were doing very well ;-)
Interesting – imagine governments being in a situation where they could distribute to their citizens rather than tax them. Hmm. There’s a whole new way to understand these funds…
Eh, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Libya are gonna be shit out of luck when the oil keg finally floats unless they get crackin’ on an infrastructure that isn’t so reliant on the sale of petroleum.