Norway Unexpectedly Withdraws Cash From Massive Wealth Fund
- Surprise withdrawal follows drop in oil price to 7-month low
- Highlights sensitive budgets amid record oil-income spending
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Norway unexpectedly took almost $400 million from its sovereign wealth fund in August, marking the first withdrawal in over a year as western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer takes advantage of its enormous piggy bank amid a decline in oil prices.
Tapping the world’s biggest wealth fund remains an extremely rare occurrence in Norway. The government made its first ever withdrawal in 2016, following a collapse in crude prices. The huge fiscal buffer that the fund represents has helped Norway’s central bank avoid some of the extremes of monetary stimulus to which its peers have had to resort.