Economic commentary: Sweden has had a stable financial surplus for many years – but where did the money go?
Date
17/04/2015
Sweden has had a substantial surplus on its current account, and thereby also a corresponding financial surplus, for a long time. Nevertheless, Sweden's international wealth has developed very slowly.
This Economic Commentary indicates some potential causes of this:
One explanation is that changes in the prices of financial assets have contributed during certain periods to a poorer value trend in wealth. Another explanation is that the reported net international investment position has probably been underestimated as a result of the accounting principle used for direct investment. Finally, the authors point to gaps in the statistics. This includes Swedes' cross-border assets not being adequately captured in the statistics. There are strong reasons to improve the statistics in this field.
Read the entire commentary: Sweden has had a stable financial surplus for many years – but where did the money go?
By Gunnar Blomberg, Sofia Kåhre and Anders Lindström The authors are employed at the Riksbank's Monetary Policy Department
