*** Turning to monetary policy, the beginning of the year was unusually eventful. Following the decision by the Swiss National Bank on 15 January to discontinue the minimum exchange rate for the Swiss franc against the euro, we saw an unprecedented increase in demand for Danish kroner. Against that background, Danmarks Nationalbank took a number of unusual steps.
We intervened in the foreign exchange market by selling kroner for a larger amount than ever before in our history, and the benchmark monetary policy interest rate – the rate of interest on certificates of deposit – was reduced to –0.75 per cent.