By Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Performance at Australia’s sovereign wealth fund rebounded in the final quarter of 2023 buoyed by the rally in global equity markets, results published on Tuesday showed.
The A$212 billion ($139 billion) Future Fund, which returned 8% in the year ended Dec. 31, also cautioned against expecting aggressive rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of Australia this year.
The Future Fund narrowly missed its target return of 8.4%. In the December quarter it returned 3.2% versus a target of 1.9%.
Chair Peter Costello, who retires in February, said while there were signs inflation in Australia was beginning to moderate, there remained a long way to go to get prices back into the central bank’s target band.
“Although inflation has fallen from its peak, it is still well outside the target range of 2% to 3%,” Costello said in a statement.
“Whilst markets rebounded on an expectation that rates could be lower this year, there is still a way to go.”
($1 = 1.5223 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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