Kion Group Gmbh

The return of the Kingdom (SNDO) to the international capital market after two years' absence was successful. The new foreign currency bond was issued in the Eurodollar market. "We are very pleased with the execution. We saw a strong demand and the bond was broadly distributed among institutional investors world wide" says Maria Norström, Deputy Head of Funding.

Swedish central government borrowing will increase more than anticipated in the coming two years since the budget deficit will be larger than the Swedish National Debt Office expected in its previous forecast of 4 November 2008. We now expect a budget deficit in the range of SEK 90 billion in 2009 and SEK 65 billion in 2010.

The Swedish National Debt Office will publish revised borrowing forecasts for 2009 and 2010 on Thursday 15 January at 9.30 am.

The Swedish central government budget showed a surplus of SEK 135 billion in 2008[1]. The large surplus is to a large extent explained by sales of government-owned enterprises. The sales of Vin & Sprit, Vasakronan and OMX totaled SEK 77 billion in 2008.

The Swedish National Debt Office will increase the share of foreign currency debt, with the aim of reducing the costs of central government debt. This was decided on by the board of the Debt Office on Tuesday. The decision means that we take a position for a stronger krona.

The Swedish National Debt Office is investigating the possibility of issuing a new long-term nominal government bond. The first issue may take place during the first quarter of 2009.

Pending official charge levels from the European Central Bank, the Swedish National Debt Office has decided on charges for the standardised method in the state guarantee programme for the banks.

Swedish central government payments gave a surplus of SEK 19.7 billion in November. The Debt Office's latest forecast was a surplus of SEK 19.9 billion. The outcome was thus in line with the forecast.

The Swedish National Debt Office will from now on be able to sell covered mortgage bonds in forward contracts cleared by Nasdaq OMX. This will increase our flexibility in managing our surpluses that are placed in for example covered bonds.

The Swedish National Debt Office continues, as planned, to issue T-bills in extra auctions. The plan for the coming auctions looks as follows, including the previously announced dates for the ordinary auctions.