Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation is holding its annual meetings in Fairbanks this week. The state owned corporation’s director Mike Burns says the fund’s value has been on a roller coasters ride in recent years, as the economy has gone from boom to bust, and now recovery.
Burns says the fund survived despite the heavy financial slump of 2008, one of the five worst economic years on record in the U.S. Permanent Fund investments are diversified worldwide, and Burns says fund managers did not react when the sharp down turn hit.
Burns says Alaskans should take confidence away from the experience, and be proud of the financial legacy the fund has created with state oil royalties.
25 percent of state oil royalty interest goes into the Permanent Fund’s principle. Burns says that’s meant between $650 and $820 million being deposited into the fund annually over the last four years. He says high oil prices have elevated fund input, despite declining North Slope production.
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