Engelsk

At the end of fourth quarter 2022, Denmark’s net international investment position, IIP, was kr. 1,792 billion. It has been a very turbulent year for the IIP due to the large price fluctuations on shares, bonds and exchange rates. Overall, the IIP fell kr. 136 bil-lion in 2022 (corresponding to 7.1 per cent), despite a record surplus of kr. 367 billion on the balance of payments.

Danish institutional investors, i.e. insurance and pension companies and investment funds, have invested more than kr. 1,300 billion in listed companies with varying greenhouse gas emissions. Together, they thus financed emissions of 10.9 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2022, which is a reduction of around 20 per cent since 2018. Concurrently, the investors have become less exposed to equities in companies with high greenhouse gas emissions measured in relation to revenue. The figures for the investors’ climate footprint are presented in a new publication of climate-related indicators from Danmarks Nationalbank.

The existence of a robust and reliable reference rate in Danish kroner is important for both financial market participants, companies and households since reference rates are used in a wide range of financial products, including bank loans, mortgage bonds and interest rate swaps as well as input for the valuation of financial assets. The Danish market should follow international standards by developing a liquid and well-functioning DESTR market across asset classes and market participants are encouraged to use DESTR as the primary reference rate in financial products going forward.

Danish homeowners bought back fixed-rate callable mortgage bonds for a total of DKK 243 billion in connection with refinancing of their home loans dur-ing 2022. Buybacks related to refinancing rose steadily throughout 2022 in line with interest rate developments and peaked in the 4th quarter with DKK 70 billion.

In the past year, homeowners in all municipalities have reduced their mortgage debt, with the exception of Gentofte and Gribskov municipalities. Danish homeowners had mortgage debt of kr. 1,786 billion (nominal) by the end of February, which is 2.1 per cent (kr. 38 billion) less than a year ago.

On 23 March, Assistant Governor Thomas Harr gave at presentation at PwC’s CEO conference 2023. The presentation focused on macroeconomic volatility and the outlook for growth, inflation and real interest rates. In the presentation, he argues that growth and inflation is expected to drop significantly in 2023 but inflation will remain at a high level in the coming years, and there is considerable uncertainty about the level of real interest rates (the presentation is in Danish only).

​Danmarks Nationalbank raises the current-account rate, the rate of interest on certificates of deposit, the lending rate and the discount rate by 0.50 percentage point with effect from 17 March 2023.