Sweden’s central bank to report $7.7 bln loss for 2022

(Reuters) – Sweden’s central bank expects to report a loss of 81 billion Swedish crowns ($7.72 billion) for 2022 due primarily to higher market interest rates, it said on Wednesday. “The unrealised loss is mainly due to globally rising market interest rates, which has reduced the market value of the Riksbank’s assets,” it said in a statement. It said the result would include a reversal of previous financial risk provisions. “The decision to reverse 5 billion crowns, from previous risk provisions, improves the preliminary reported result for the 2022 financial year,” it said.

The Riksbank said the loss would mean its equity would be very low and that it could submit a petition to parliament to remedy the situation, but would first conduct some more analysis. The Riksbank held 845 billion Swedish crowns worth of assets at the end of 2022, which it bought to support the economy during the COVID-19 crisis and to get stubbornly low inflation closer to the 2% target. The assets mainly consist of government bonds and mortgage bonds but also commercial papers and corporate bonds. The Swiss National Bank on Monday posted an annual loss of 132 billion Swiss francs ($142.2 billion) for 2022, the biggest in its 115-year history, hit by falling stock and fixed-income markets as well as a strengthening of the country’s currency.