China Investment Corp (CIC), the nation’s sovereign wealth fund established to help diversify its foreign-exchange reserves, suffered investment losses in 2022 as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions roiled global markets and eroded its assets and long-term returns, reports the South China Morning Post.
CIC’s total assets fell to $1.24 trillion by the end of last year from $1.35 trillion for the previous year, mainly due to a $51.4 billion impairment in the fair value of its holdings, according to its annual report. It was the first drop since the fallout from the US-China trade war in 2018.
The losses, while not publicly disclosed, narrowed the fund’s 10-year rolling returns to 6.43%, from 8.73% as of end-2021, in US dollar terms. Annualised net returns since its 2007 inception stood at 5.94% last year, versus 7.22% in 2021, according to its annual reports.