Norway

Established to manage Norway’s oil revenues, the country’s sovereign wealth fund surpassed the $1-trillion (1.8-trillion-euro) mark on Tuesday thanks to the recent appreciation of the world’s major currencies against the US dollar and rising stock markets across the world. This amount equals nearly $189,000 (€157,000) for each of the 5.3 million people living in Norway.

Established in the 1990s to manage the Norwegian state’s oil revenues, the fund set the record thanks to the appreciation of the world’s major currencies against the dollar and a good stock market health.

Norway’s sovereign-wealth fund, the world’s biggest, topped a $1 trillion valuation after the best half-year return in its history.
In the first half of 2017, the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) made 499 billion kroner ($63 billion), a 2.6% return on its investments, the best half-year return in its history, the fund announced on Tuesday.

In a bold experiment in voluntary taxation, the Norwegian government launched an initiative in June that allowed those who thought their taxes to be too low to make contributions to the state.

“The tax scheme was set up to allow those who want to pay more taxes to do so in a simple and straightforward way,” Finance Minister Siv Jensen said in a comment emailed to Bloomberg reporters. “If anyone thinks the tax level is too low, they now have the chance to pay more.”

The Norwegian Skandianbanken, independent of its Swedish counterpart, is rolling out a new feature which allows customers to integrate their Bitcoin wallets, checking the value of their holdings at the same time they check their bank accounts, according to local publication E24.

Through an integration of the Coinbase wallet, which enables the buying and storing of cryptocurrency holdings in bitcoin, ether and litecoin, the bank’s customers now have direct access to these holdings using Skandiabanken’s online banking.

Norway, the Scandinavian nation of 5 million, known for its spectacular fjords, reindeer and "Midnight Sun," ranks No. 1 among 155 countries rated for happiness in a United Nations report out Monday.

The country rocketed from 4th place to the top of the list, on the basis of several key calculations for measuring social happiness, among them levels of caring, freedom to make life decisions, generosity, good governance, honesty, health and income. Notably, on The Children’s Worlds index of material deprivation, Norwegian children lacked the least in the world.

It is not obvious that the UK can enter EFTA, the club that brings together Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

According to Elizabeth Vik Aspaker, Minister for European Affairs of the Scandinavian country, in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, UK could be a problem for the country: "It is not certain that men may bring to this organization a great country is a good idea, it would change the balance , which is not necessarily in the interests of Norway. "

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, with assets amounting to 850 billion, has decided to sue the Volkswagen to the heavy losses incurred as a shareholder of Volkswagen home to the so-called ‘dieselgate ": the scandal broke out in the US on tampered units installed on diesel cars to reduce emissions of harmful gases during the test.

Peter Johnsen, to the Norges Bank Investment Management, announced the Financial Times, so the next move: "We have been advised by our lawyers that the conduct of the company provides us with elements to seek compensation according to German law. As investors and it is our responsibility to safeguard our investment in Volkswagen. " The Norwegian fund is the fourth shareholder in the Wolfsburg home with the 1.64% stake.