Swedes held foreign shares worth SEK 400 billion at end 1997

Swedish investors' holdings of foreign portfolio shares at the end of 1997 totalled SEK 400.7 billion, which means that in two years the stock has more than doubled. This is shown by the Riksbank's annual survey of Swedish residents' holdings of foreign portfolio shares.

The largest part, about 45 per cent, of the holdings is invested in the United States; this is twice as much as at the end of 1994. After the United States, the largest Swedish holdings, in descending order, are in the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland For the first time, the survey data now show share holdings in Southeast Asia and Russia; at the end of 1997 these totalled SEK 13.9 billion and SEK 3.1 billion, respectively, mainly in the form of mutual funds. Among the Nordic countries, Finnish shares were most popular, with a Swedish holding of SEK 17.1 billion.

The survey is available on the Riksbank's homepage: www.riksbank.se.

For further information, please contact Maria Falk at the Financial Statistics Department: telephone +46 8 787 03 68.