GIC hits 20-year annualised return rate of 3.7%

This is from April 1997 to March 2017.

GIC continues to deliver on its mission to preserve and enhance the long-term international purchasing power of the foreign reserves placed under its management, with an annualised real rate of return was 3.7% per year for over 20 years.

According to GIC CEO Lim Chow Kiat, this means that GIC has enhanced the portfolio by an average return of 3.7% above the global inflation rate between April 1997 and March 2017.

"A key part of GIC’s investment strategy in such an environment is to ensure that the GIC Portfolio remains robust across a range of plausible scenarios. This means the portfolio needs to be diversified along multiple dimensions such as asset classes, regions, return drivers and risk thresholds," he said.

Lim explained that GIC has taken a relatively cautious portfolio stance due to a combination of stretched valuations, high policy uncertainty and unresolved economic imbalances.

"As a long-term value investor, we remain cautious and recognise that to generate good real returns over time, we have to be prepared for periods of underperformance relative to the market indices, some even for a stretch of several years," he furthered.