Engelsk

​In February 2021, the foreign-exchange reserve increased by kr. 1.8 billion to kr. 429.4 billion.

Since the beginning of 2020, foreign investors' ownership share of Danish 30-year fixed rate callable mortgage bonds has been constant at around 40 per cent. At the end of January 2021, this corresponded to foreign investors owning bonds totalling kr. 408 billion.

In January 2021, the total outstanding volume of 30-year fixed-rate callable mortgage bonds amounted to kr. 1,037 billion, which is an increase of kr. 138 billion compared to last year. There has been a clear shift towards mortgage bonds with lower coupon rates in connection with falling interest rates and refinancing of mortgages. As a result, the share of bonds with a coupon rate of 1 per cent or lower has increased from 49 per cent to 71 per cent since January 2020.

The Danes' appetite for mortgage loans without instalments was renewed in 2020, where the total mortgage debt without instalments grew by kr. 30.9 billion. Mortgage loans without instalments were introduced in 2003 but debt without instalments has in general been declining since 2012. The change in 2020 is thus the first significant increase in many years and the largest increase since 2011.

The Danes' annual mortgage loan expenses still fall and have now reached on average kr. 15,532 per borrowed million. Kr. 7,450 of this amount is interest payments to the bond investors, and kr. 8,082 is administration fees to the mortgage credit institution.

This paper analyzes the role of underwriters for issuers of corporate bonds. The results suggest that – in terms of issuance costs – bond issuers benefit from using underwriters they have used before, but, at the same time, this exposes the issuer to a credit risk spillover from the underwriter.

The activity in foreign direct investments (FDI) was low in 2020. Danish companies' outward FDI increased by kr. 5 billion, while Danish inward FDI decreased by kr. 10 billion.

Households' savings increased significantly during the first wave of the corona pandemic in Denmark and several other countries. This Economic Memo finds that the higher savings in Denmark were driven by restrictions rather than precautionary consumers. Precautionary savings have so far been relatively limited and smaller than during the financial crisis. (Memo available in Danish only).