Sovereign wealth funds – public investment vehicles, foreign policy element. Comparative evolution in the international context

Sovereign funds are an important actor occurring on international financial markets in the last decade, being, in fact, state controlled international investments. Generally, they are financed from foreign currency reserves of the emergent countries they are constituted in, being managed apart of the official reserves and used for external expansion; they are likely to be detrimental to certain strategic interests. As public financial vehicles, they own, endorse or manage public funds of some emergent countries, freely invested by them in a great number of assets, being seen as a foreign policy element.