Norway, the world’s happiest country, now has a new reason to be cheerful – it is now also the richest nation on earth.<br /><br />The value of the Scandinavian country’s sovereign wealth fund has reached an unprecedented $1 trillion after outperforming all initial expectations.<br /><br />Known locally as the “oil fund”, it was established over 20 years ago in order to invest long term revenue from oil extraction and set aside money for future generations.<br /><br />Measured in US dollars, the fund’s value has increased due to higher climbing stock markets and a strengthening of the world’s major currencies against the dollar.<br /><br />It has now become the world’s largest fund and is equivalent to roughly 1.4 million Norwegian kroner for each of the country’s 5.2 million citizens.<br /><br />It owns on average 1.3 per cent of every listed company in the world, and around 2.3 percent of all those listed in Europe.<br />
