April 2006

Swedish government bonds reaching maturity led to capital outflow Cross-border portfolio investment continued to generate capital outflows for the sixth month in a row. In April the net outflow was SEK 73.6 billion. This is largely explained by a substantial number of Swedish government bonds maturing, but cross-border equity trading also led to outflows. The statistics for the April show that foreign investors reduced their holdings in Swedish debt securities, which resulted in a net outflow of SEK 51 billion. The main contributory factors to the outflow were foreign investors’ net sales of mortgage bonds totalling SEK 18.1 billion and two Swedish government bonds reaching maturity. These bond maturities, including trade in government bonds resulted in a net outflow of SEK 35.3 billion. Cross-border equity trading gave a net outflow of SEK 22.3 billion, of which SEK 21.5 billion involved Swedish investors’ purchases of foreign equity. Norwegian, German and Finnish equity securities attracted most interest.