SINGAPORE: Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC posted its highest returns since 2015 for the latest financial year, but said it remains cautious in an uncertain macro environment due to a protracted COVID-19 pandemic and stretched valuations. In its 2020/21 annual report released on Friday (Jul 23), GIC said its 20-year annualised real rate of return came in at 4.3 per cent for the year ended Mar 31. This is up from 2.7 per cent in the previous financial year and the highest since 2015 when real returns hit 4.9 per cent. The 20-year metric – a primary indicator of GIC’s investment performance – is a “rolling” return where years are dropped and added as the computation window moves. For instance, the figure for FY2020/21 represented the average annual return of GIC’s portfolio between April 2001 and March 2021, with global inflation taken into account. The spike in the real rate...