Permanent Fund tops $32B for first time

The value of the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state’s oil-revenue savings account, reached $32 billion for the first time, fund officials say.

The fund has grown $1 billion over the previous three weeks after a steep decline in October, fund officials said Nov. 25.

The growth spurt was due in part to the recent rise in value throughout global financial markets, said Bob Bartholomew, the fund’s chief operating officer.

It’s too early to tell whether the rise will affect the amount of the annual Permanent Fund dividend paid to each Alaska resident next fall, officials said.

The dividend is calculated on a five-fiscal-year average of the fund’s profits, so a large gain in fund value will not translate into proportionately larger dividends, Bartholomew said.

So far this year, the fund has gained more than $2 billion and is on target to meet the long-term goal of 8 percent growth a year, he said.

The bulk of the fund’s investments are in stocks, bonds and real estate, although overseers are planning to shift much of the money to alternative investments, such as hedge funds and venture capital projects.

The fund draws less than 10 percent of its earnings from legislatively authorized deposits of a portion of oil revenues, according to Bartholomew.

—The Associated Press