Many Danish homeowners have used interest rate increases to refinance their mortgages. When interest rates rise, the price of fixed-rate mortgage bonds falls, enabling homeowners to repay their loans at a price below the price of the loan when it was taken out. This means that homeowners can realise a net wealth gain, which they can use for various purposes. Danmarks Nationalbank’s economists have conducted a study of how these homeowners have spent their net wealth gain on. The study showed that most people have reduced their bank or mortgage debt. Others have chosen to extract cash to support consumption or savings at a time when rising interest rates and high inflation generally dampen economic activity.

Companies are communicating more and more about efforts aimed at reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is no correlation between how much companies communicate about their emissions and the actual change in their emissions. This is one of the main findings in a new working paper.