Surplus for Swedish central government in November

Press release 7 December 2018

Swedish central government payments resulted in a surplus of SEK 15.6 billion in November. The Debt Office’s forecast was a surplus of SEK 24.8 billion. The difference was mainly due to higher expenditure and higher net lending to government agencies than expected.

The central government's primary balance was SEK 4.4 billion lower than forecast. This was partly due to higher expenditure from some government agencies such as the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency. The tax income were approximately SEK 1 billion lower than calculated.

The Debt Office’s net lending to government agencies etc. was SEK 4.9 billion higher than forecasted. The difference can partly be explained by the expected transfer of guarantee funds by the Swedish Export Credit Agency from a foreign currency account in a bank to an account in the Swedish National Debt Office by the 20th of December. Some of the guarantee funds were forecasted to be transferred in November. All of the guarantee funds will be received by the Swedish National Debt office in December. The deposits from the Swedish Pensions Agency were also lower than forecasted in November.

Interest payments on central government debt were SEK 0.1 billion lower than forecast.

For the twelve-month period up to the end of November 2018, central government payments resulted in a surplus of SEK 88.8 billion.

Central government debt amounted to SEK 1,210 billion at the end of November.

The outcome for December will be published on 9 January 2019 at 9.30 a.m.

Contact

Sofia Nilsson, Economist +46 (0)8 613 47 34

Press Secretary, +46 (0)8 613 47 01

Central government net borrowing requirement¹ (SEK million)
¹ The net borrowing requirement corresponds to the budget balance with opposite sign.
² Sum of monthly forecast deviations since last forecast (October 2018).
³ Net of the state's primary expenditure and income.
4 The net of government agencies etc. deposits and loans in the state’s internal bank. The net lending includes both current government operations and temporary occurrences which can be decided on short notice. The net lending affects the net borrowing requirement and central government debt, but are not covered by the Central government expenditure ceiling.
 Outcome   NovemberForecast NovemberDev. NovemberAcc. Dev²Outcome 12-month
Net borrowing requirement  -15 617 -24 838 9 222 16 430 -88 782
Primary balance³ -15 377 -19 803 4 426 13 266 -97 783
Net lending to agencies etc.4 -1 188 -6 067 4 879 2 822 -2 785
Interest payments on central government debt 948 1 032 -84 342 11 786
  - Interest on loans in SEK 929 1 066 -137 316 12 783
  - Interest on loans in foreign currency -10 -14 4 24 -338
  - Realised currency gains and losses 30 -20 50 3 -659

More data on the borrowing requirement and government debt

Report: Central Government Debt November 2018

The monthly outcome of the central government net borrowing requirement is included in the official statistics of Sweden.