THE Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and Temasek Holdings outperformed global equity markets in 2008, said Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Parliament on Monday.

'Their overall value has fallen by less than the decline in global equity markets, as they maintain diversified portfolios and had taken precautionary actions early in the crisis to reduce their exposures to the equity markets,' he said in a written reply to a query in Parliament from Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim.

Ms Lim, who is the opposition Worker's Party chairman, wanted to know the extent of losses - on paper or realised - suffered by GIC and Temasek Holdings arising from the financial meltdown.

Mr Shanmugaratnam said investments by GIC and Temasek had not been spared by the global financial crisis.

He said as at Dec 31, the MSCI World (Equities) had declined by 42 per cent in 2008, slightly worse than the 40 per cent decline as at end October.

The MSCI (Singapore) fell by 50 per cent over the year.

'Investments by GIC and Temasek have inevitably been affected, like those of other global investors,' he said.

'However, their overall value has fallen by less than the decline in global equity markets, as they maintain diversified portfolios and had taken precautionary actions early in the crisis to reduce their exposures to the equity markets.'

Added the minister: 'GIC and Temasek's strategies of investing on a diversified basis for the long term, and maintaining sound governance and risk management practices, enable them to ride through market cycles, including severe market declines such as in the current global crisis.

'These strategies also put them in a position to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise from the current downturn.'