Danmarks Nationalbank regularly provides its perspectives on economic and financial matters at various events and meetings. Speeches and presentations provide insight into Danmarks Nationalbank’s contribution to the event or meeting in question.

Fiscal policy

Governor Christian Kettel Thomsen’s speech at Kommunal­økonomisk Forum on 15 January 2026

In a speech at Kommunaløkonomisk Forum, Governor Christian Kettel Thomsen said that several factors in the economy have surprised on the upside, which has led to sound public finances. However, higher public spending on defence means that other priorities sooner or later will have to give way if Denmark is to maintain a robust and credible public economy. (The speech and presentation is in Danish only)

In the speech, Christian Kettel Thomsen pointed out that the strong position of the public finances has been a great advantage for Denmark during the turbulent economic conditions in recent years. This means that Denmark has been able to prioritize new tasks without having to deprioritize other areas.

However, Christian Kettel Thomsen pointed out that the expansion of the military capacity is a huge task which requires permanent expenditures for an extensive period going forward. And even though the fiscal space currently is greater than we are used to, the large defense spending will sooner or later have an impact on prioritizations in other areas.

"It’s important to keep in mind that the fiscal space is an estimate based on a projection of the Danish economy that comes from a number of uncertain assumptions. This means that there may also be downward revisions, and there may be new crises that we do not yet know about, as we experienced with the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Hence, it is important that we do not become overconfident when it comes to using the fiscal space for higher public spending," says Christian Kettel Thomsen.

In the speech, Christian Kettel Thomsen also emphasized that Denmark is a small, open economy that is dependent on the credibility stemming from our sound public finances that has been built up over many years. It is therefore a cause of concern that we currently hear about political intentions to prioritize higher additional public spending and new policy initiatives that reduce revenues.

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