SOVEREIGN Wealth Funds - $3.3 TRILLION

According to the Financial Times, WW assets managed by SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS (SWF) grew 18% last year to $3.3 TRILLION!

According to Wikipedia.com, "sovereign wealth funds are entities that manage state savings for the purposes of investment...The accumulated funds may have their origin in, or may represent foreign currency deposits, gold, SDRs and IMF reserve position held by central banks and monetary authorities, along with other national assets such as pension investments, oil funds, or other industrial and financial holdings."

By 2015, assets under management of sovereign wealth funds are expected to increase to $10 TRILLION!

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fda12b16-fec4-11dc-9e04-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

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*NOTE the below link to see a List of the World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Funds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_funds#Largest_sovereign_wealth_funds

Data Courtesy: Wikipedia + FT.com, snagged on 4/01/08.