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RIKSGÄLDEN

Swedish treasury bill sales lower than expected

Sweden's debt office (Riksgälden) has said the demand for treasury bills has not been not as high as first feared when it stepped in to ease market tensions.

Published: 29 September 2008 15:18 CEST

The office said earlier this month it would sell as much as 150 billion kronor ($22.7 billion) of T-bills in extra auctions to soothe the markets as investors turned to investments seen as safer.

With two more extra auctions to go, it has sold around 70 billion kronor worth of them.

“We satisfied the markets fairly well at the beginning,” said Bo Lundgren, director-general of the debt office.

Lundgren said he expected the auctions to reach a total volume of at least around 100 million, but added: “It rather feels like we won’t need to use them (the 150 billion) all.”

The office has said the funds raised would mostly be used to add liquidity to the mortgage bond market.

BUDGET

Sweden boasts hefty budget surplus for 2011

Sweden’s national debt office (Riksgälden) stated on Tuesday that the country’s budget surplus from 2011 stood at 68 billion kronor ($9.85 billion).

Published: 10 January 2012 13:35 CET

“Despite increased concerns about the debt situation in the world and an expected slowdown in the economy during the second half, Swedish government finances developed strongly in 2011,” the debt office said in a statement.

While Sweden, with its heavily export reliant economy was hard-hit during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, its recovery “continued to be strong in 2011, which generated higher tax income,” the office said.

The debt office pointed out that the government during the year had also sold off shares worth 23 billion kronor in the Nordic region’s biggest bank, Nordea, and in Swedish-Finnish telecom giant Telia Sonera.

Sweden’s central government debt meanwhile stood at 1,108 billion kronor at the end of 2011, which corresponds to 32 percent of the non-euro-member’s gross domestic product (GDP), far below the 60-percent level allowed within the eurozone.

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