Surplus for Swedish central government in May 2019

Press release 10 June 2019

Swedish central government payments resulted in a surplus of SEK 64.2 billion in May. The Debt Office's forecast was a surplus of SEK 40.2 billion. The difference is mainly due to the Riksbank repaying the foreign currency loans they previously borrowed from the Debt Office.

The Debt Office’s net lending to government agencies etc. was SEK 19.4 billion lower than forecasted. The lower net lending is mainly explained by SEK 19.9 billion lower on-lending to the Riksbank. The Riksbank announced in early March, after the Debt Office's previous forecast had been published, that the currency loan that matured in May were not to be refinanced by the Debt Office.

The primary balance, the difference between central government income and expenditure, was SEK 4.9 billion higher than forecasted. This is mainly due to approximately SEK 4 billion higher tax revenue than expected.

Interest payments on the central government debt were SEK 0.3 billion higher than forecasted.

For the twelve-month period up to the end of May 2019, central government payments resulted in a surplus of SEK 93.8 billion.

Central government debt amounted to SEK 1 078 billion at the end of May.

The outcome for June 2019 will be published on the 5th July at 9.30 a.m.

Revised forecasts for the net borrowing requirement 2019 and 2020 are published on the 18th June at 9.30 am in the report Central government borrowing – Forecast and analysis.

Contact

Lina Majtorp, Economist +46 (0)8 613 46 76

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

Central government net borrowing requirement¹ (SEK million)
¹The net borrowing requirement corresponds to the budget balance with opposite sign.
²Sum of monthly forecast deviations since last forecast (February 2019).
³Net of the state's primary expenditure and income.
4The 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 MayForecast MayDev. MayAcc. 
Dev²
Outcome 12-month
Net borrowing requirement  -64 217 -40 185 -24 032 -32 392 -93 760
Primary balance³ -47 080 -42 191 -4 890 -10 534 -89 779
Net lending to agencies etc.4 -21 259 -1 853 -19 406 -23 317 -22 769
Interest payments on central government debt 4 123 3 859 264 1 459 18 788
 - Interest on loans in SEK 3 623 906 2 717 -415 15 038
 - Interest on loans in foreign currency 92 -66 158 -6 -449
 - Realised currency gains and losses 408 3 019 -2 611 1 880 4 198

More data on the borrowing requirement and government debt.

Report Central Government Debt May 2019

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