Apparently, the transparent Norwegians are not impressed with the official reason, and neither am I.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/tan-...re-first-world-vs-third-world/722118654534079
Differences with GIC are very stark:
(1) Norway's SWF reports to Parliament which scrutinises it and requires it to publish all relevant information at regular intervals such as the size of its funds, its performance, cost of management, its investment strategy and ethical guidelines. On the other hand, GIC does not report to Parliament who has no authority to scrutinise it. The Government claims that it is a private company even though it manages public money. It publishes at its convenience and chooses what it wants to let the public know.
(2) The obvious big secret of GIC is the size of its funds.
When we told Bjorn that the official reason for non-disclosure is to prevent speculative attacks on our Sing$ currency like what George Soros did to sterling some years back, he smiled diplomatically. He said the only reason to fear speculator attacks is if the currency is weak. The Norwegian kroner is appreciating and has not been subject to speculative attacks. We added that the Sing$ is also strong and the MAS has to moderate its appreciation all the time.
(3) Norway publishes the performance of its SWF annually with quarterly updates. GIC selectively discloses its average annual rate of return in 5-year and 20-year blocks but without the annual figures nor figures from its inception in 1981 (as far as I can recall). I also recall that sometimes it presented its performance in US$ and S$ but in another year only in US$. This inconsistency makes year to year comparison very difficult.
