10  6  One quarter of the total debts are in the County of Stockholm, one sixth in the County of Västra Götaland, one seventh in the County of Skåne and one third in the rest of the country. BIS central bankers’ speeches  Chart 4. Debt ratios for households with mortgages in different municipalities Per cent 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Stockholm  Gothenburg  Malmö  Others  Source: The Riksbank  Young people are most highly indebted, but older people also have high debt ratios I would also like to take this opportunity to say something about how the debts are distributed per age group. It is sometimes claimed that it is mostly younger people that are highly indebted. This is also confirmed by the Riksbank’s credit data. However, we also note that indebtedness is actually rather high in the older age groups (see Chart 5). In other words it is not only “young yuppies in central Stockholm” that have large debts but also their grandparents living in small towns and villages in other parts of the country. Chart 5.
Aligning the operational framework of monetary policy to European standards is another challenging objective the central bank faces. Obviously, I am talking about the still high reserve requirement ratios (given the need to contain credit expansion, foreign currency lending in particular, during the economic boom) and the relatively large width of the interest rate corridor (initially warranted by the imperative of cooling off speculative capital inflows and domestic currency appreciation). The NBR has capitalised, in the past two years, on the window of opportunity provided by the favourable macroeconomic and financial background to rectify the situation to a large extent, yet the process needs to be continued until reaching the prevailing levels across the EU. Looking ahead, it is essential that the NBR identify, as it has until now, the right timing for the upcoming stages of the alignment process to unfold  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  without impairing the smooth functioning of the markets and without deteriorating key indicators for investor sentiment or, more generally, public perception. I will end my brief overview on the economic state of play in Romania by expressing my hope that this event will turn out to be the beginning of a lucrative and mutually beneficial partnership. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3