Guidelines for central government debt management 2024

The starting point for the Swedish Government’s guidelines decision is the objective of central government debt policy adopted by the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament). The objective is that central government debt shall be managed so as to minimise the long-term cost of the debt while taking the risk associated with its management into account, and shall be conducted within the framework of the requirements of monetary policy.

Central government debt decreased as a share of GDP (gross domestic product) in 2022. Central government debt is expected to continue to decrease as a share of GDP but to temporarily increase somewhat in billions of SEK during the forecast period 2023–2026.

The guidelines decision for 2024 makes no changes to the steering of debt management compared with the preceding year.

The composition of the central government debt is to be steered towards:

• Inflation-linked krona debt is to be 20% of the central government debt in the long term.
• Nominal krona debt is to make up the remaining share of the central government debt after inflation-linked krona debt and foreign currency debt.
• Foreign currency debt – foreign exchange exposure is to be gradually phased out and attain the target value of zero as of 2027.
• The term to maturity (in terms of duration) of the central government debt is to be steered towards 3.5–6 years.

The Swedish National Debt Office’s proposed guidelines among other factors formed the basis for this guidelines decision.

In connection with the preparation of the Government’s guidelines decision, the Riksbank has been afforded the opportunity to provide its opinion on the Debt Office’s proposal. The Riksbank has raised no objections. On the other hand, the Riksbank has views on the Debt Office’s phasing out of the central government debt’s foreign currency exposure (for more information, see Section 3.3).

The Government’s guidelines decision for 2024 largely accords with the Debt Office’s proposed guidelines.