Norway wealth fund earns flat return in Q3

OSLO, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Norway's $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, on Thursday reported an overall flat return on its investments for the third quarter.

The fund, which invests the proceeds of the Nordic country's oil and gas production into foreign assets for future generations, saw a return of 0.1%, equivalent to 31 billion crowns ($3.71 billion).

"The equity market continued to strengthen towards August, before dipping slightly in the second half of the quarter," the fund's deputy chief executive, Trond Grande, said in a statement.

The fund's return was 0.25 percentage points higher than the return on its benchmark index.

Some 71.5% of its investments were in equities at the end of the third quarter, 25.9% in fixed income, 2.5% in unlisted property and 0.1% in unlisted renewables.

The government withdrew 52 billion crowns ($6.23 billion) from the fund to use for public spending.

($1 = 8.3502 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; editing by Nora Buli)