The Government Pension Fund Global (‘The Oil Fund’) withdrew its investments from Caterpillar in August 2025. The Labour Party (Ap) government’s obsession with demonstrating opposition to Israel has led to astronomical losses for the Norwegian state treasury.

On 5 August 2025, Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg asked Norway’s Central Bank (Norges Bank) for a review of the investments in the country, and three days later the board resolved to sell out of Caterpillar entirely.

The background to why Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the Labour Party government withdrew the Government Pension Fund Global from the American bulldozer manufacturer was that the fund’s Council on Ethics assessed it as “beyond doubt that Caterpillar’s products are used to commit extensive and systematic violations of humanitarian law” in connection with the war in Gaza.

Since then, Caterpillar’s share price has exploded. Had the Government Pension Fund Global retained the shares, the gain would have amounted to a full 26 billion Norwegian kroner, writes Nettavisen.

Senior politicians in the United States, which in principle ought to be our closest ally, have reacted strongly to the decision. This has not improved after the Norwegian government’s reactions to the Iran war.

Advarsel fra USA om stortings­valget og ytre venstres grep om Oljefondet

– Moral panic

Jørgen Kristiansen, financial policy spokesperson for the Christian Democratic Party (KrF), is scathing in his criticism of the decision.

– That withdrawal was the result of moral panic in the Labour Party during last year’s election campaign, which served neither the Palestinians nor the fund, he says to Nettavisen.

– The sale of Caterpillar was pure virtue signalling from the Labour Party that is dangerous for confidence in the fund.

The symbolic politics of Labour and Stoltenberg thus cost 26 billion kroner, many times more than the cost of reducing fuel duties, which Labour and Stoltenberg described as an irresponsible economic policy.

Caterpillar’s share price has risen by 106 per cent since August, compared with a general market increase of 6 per cent.

– The government politicised the fund in a manner that undermines confidence in the fund and jeopardises access to important markets – and thereby our shared savings. In addition, as a consequence of the withdrawal, the fund has missed out on a substantial increase in the company’s value amounting to NOK 26 billion, Kristiansen adds.

A committee is now working on formulating new ethical guidelines for the Government Pension Fund Global, and all exclusions have been put on hold.

The Governor of the Central Bank defends the decision

Governor of Norges Bank Ida Wolden Bache bears responsibility for the sale of the Caterpillar shares. She defends the decision.

– We made a decision in accordance with the mandate we have been given and the framework for the fund’s ethical framework, and based on advice from the Council on Ethics.

The enormous loss does not appear to affect Wolden Bache to any significant degree, as she speaks more about ethical assessments and frameworks than profitability.

– Those assessments were made on the basis of the recommendation from the Council on Ethics, ethical considerations. Now a committee has also been appointed to review the ethical framework, which the finance minister also referred to during the hearing on the fund report earlier this week.

Caterpillar is a gigantic company, and it goes without saying that the ethical assessments of the Government Pension Fund Global, Norges Bank and the Norwegian government have zero effect on how Caterpillar conducts its business.

The only reward for Norway is a financial loss of 26 billion kroner.

Against this background, it is perhaps not so strange that Finance Minister Stoltenberg during Tuesday’s hearing on how the oil fund is to be managed in future according to Dagbladet Børsen said:

– It is not certain that in future we will earn as much from the financial markets as we have done previously. The fact that things have gone well so far is no guarantee that they will go well going forward.