Currency exchanges for the National Debt Office

The Swedish National Debt Office has been commissioned to repay government debt denominated in foreign currency to a value of SEK 15 billion during 2002. There is an interval of SEK plus/minus 15 billion for deviations from this figure, which the Debt Office can utilise without a special decision by the government. The Swedish National Debt Office has now decided to utilise the scope allowed in this deviation interval to reduce its amortisation and will therefore not make any repayments for the time being on the government debt in foreign currency during 2002, see www.rgk.se for further details.

However, it will still be necessary to pay interest of approximately SEK 20 billion on the government debt denominated in foreign currency. The Riksbank, in its role as agent for the Swedish National Debt Office in currency exchanges, will therefore purchase foreign currency for approximately SEK 10 billion in the market during the first half of next year. According to a government decision, the Debt Office will have the right to exchange currency with counterparties other than the Riksbank with effect from 1 July 2002.

The Riksbank's currency exchanges on behalf of the Swedish National Debt Office will be implemented each trading day between 8.30 and 8.45 a.m. The transactions will be spread evenly over time and handled with complete transparency.

The currency exchanges will be arranged with the institutions that have a primary dealer agreement with the Riksbank for the Swedish foreign exchange market.

Further information can be obtained from the Market Operations Department:
Charlotte Lundberg, Head of the Division for Market Operations and Reserve Management, tel. +46 8 696 68 17.
Kjell Nordin, Adviser, tel. +46 8 696 68 04.