I will also elaborate on the main elements of our investment strategy. Historical background Chart: GDP per capita in Norway, 1970–2015. Indexed to OECD To put the Norwegian economy and our wealth position into some perspective, let me start by going back in time. When the first oil was brought to the surface in 1971, income levels in Norway were low compared with other western countries. The picture has reversed since then. We have gradually caught up to the wealthiest nations. Measured by GDP per capita, Norway now ranks close to the top. Even excluding the oil sector, Norway’s mainland economy has shown relatively robust developments. But there is no doubt that the extraction of oil and gas has played a major role. Given the high oil prices of the past fifteen years in particular, a booming oil industry has been an important driver of economic growth. Last year, the petroleum sector accounted for more than 50 percent of our exports, and more than 20 percent of GDP. Chart: Business investment The high oil prices of recent years have spurred investment in the petroleum sector to record-high levels. The level of investment in this sector in 2014 was as high as total investment in domestic non-oil industries. The positive spillovers to the oil service industry and other business sectors have been substantial, in particular through the past decade. Norwegian employment has remained high and unemployment low, even when the financial crisis hit in 2008.
Reserves in emerging Asia recently passed the $ trillion mark, double their size at the end of 2003. Given the levels that have been reached in many countries, it may no longer be appropriate to view rising reserves as a source of increasing strength against future volatility. They are, increasingly, signs of the allocative distortions that result from the exchange rate regime. And they are in a sense too much of a good thing. Conclusion The economic and financial transformation of the crisis economies has been extraordinary. The policy reforms adopted in the wake of the crises have made those economies less vulnerable and more resilient. And these changes justify substantial confidence about Asia’s economic future. Asia’s success fundamentally changes the international economic and financial system. It is no longer tenable to view the world as divided between a dominant core of mature industrial economies and a smaller periphery of emerging economies. Asia is now so closely integrated with the rest of the world, so large in relative terms, and growing so rapidly that the policy choices made in this region will have a much greater impact on the rest of the world. And it means that Asia will need to prepare for a future in which it relies more on the strength of growth at home rather than on the strength of growth in the rest of the world.