Monetary Policy of Sweden - 1992

1992

In late 1992 (September 14, Monday) the British pound began a steep decline that made it "leave" the Exchange Rate Mechanism on the Wednesday of that week. At the same time the Swedish currency began to decline; the first reaction from the central bank was to try to keep the current fixed exchange rates in place, and they set a target for their equivalent to the federal funds rate ("marginal rate") at 500%. The bank began to sell short-term government securities in large amounts but soon realized that market forces were strong, so they lowered their target rate, and let everyone sell what they wanted to sell, and the country saw a large selling of SEK, and SEK denominated papers. Between September 1992 and February 1993 the Swedish currency "TCW" index went from 125 to 100 (20% fall), while the British currency XBP index fell from 200 to 142 (29% fall).