Thanks to the favourable balances and strong confidence in the Danish economy, we have benefitted from the historically low interest rates in the wake of the financial crisis. This has buoyed up private-sector demand and hence also production and employment in recent years. Both short- and long-term interest rates have fallen considerably since end-2008.
This is a concrete example of “credibility counts”, which is the theme of the Auditors’ Day 2013. On 6 July 2012, Danmarks Nationalbank reduced the rate of interest on certificates of deposit to minus 0.2 per. In other words, banks and mortgage banks must pay to hold liquidity at Danmarks Nationalbank; a situation that is unique in both a historical and an international context.