In addition, the social partners have concluded agreements in different areas on various types of collective pension schemes, many of which are based on funds. It is no coincidence that pensions are in focus when this type of fund is built up. In some way or another, systems must be created so that people have financial resources for their whole life. And this means that the perspective is very long-term. Neither is it so strange that the Norwegian oil fund is actually called Statens pensjonsfond utland (The State’s pension fund abroad). A century of collective pension wealth in Sweden How much funded collective pension wealth has then been built up in Sweden? What share of the wealth in Sweden is in collective pension funds? Figure 1 answers these questions. Figure 1. Funded collective pension wealth as a share of total wealth in Sweden, 1920-2019, per cent. 30 25 20  15 10 5 0 1920  1930  1940  1950  1960  1970  1980  1990  2000  2010  2020  Source: Swedish National Wealth Database, 1810-2019. See also Waldenström (2016) and (2017). Note: Total wealth is the sum of financial and real assets, with a deduction for financial liabilities, and funded collective pension wealth. 1 Ore and forest are natural resources that have been and still are of major importance in Sweden. But extensive  investment has been required to be able to benefit from these natural resources. Norwegian oil is a “windfall gain” in a completely different way.
SPEECH DATE:  12/04/21  SPEAKER:  Deputy Governor Henry Ohlsson  VENUE:  LO  SVERIGES RIKSBANK SE-103 37 Stockholm (Brunkebergstorg 11) Tel +46 8 787 00 00 Fax +46 8 21 05 31 registratorn@riksbank.se www.riksbank.se  Hidden wealth* Expansionary monetary policy causes asset prices to rise and thereby makes those who own assets wealthier. But this wealth is unevenly distributed among households, and therefore the income from it (capital income) will also be unevenly distributed. Expansionary monetary policy can thus lead to more uneven capital income. At the same time, unemployment decreases when monetary policy is expansionary. This makes labour income more even than it otherwise would have been. As the effects on capital income and labour income counteract each other, it is unclear what effect the expansionary policy has on income distribution in total. But this does not stop higher asset prices leading to more uneven wealth distribution. In this speech, I will highlight a phenomenon that can mitigate this effect. I will start with an example that illustrates what I mean by hidden wealth. The Norwegian oil fund is one of the world’s largest funds. In 2019, the value of the fund was 285 per cent of Norway’s nominal GDP. Norway's revenue from oil operations are added to the fund and the assets are then invested abroad. The nominal return has been a good 6 per cent a year on average since the fund started in 1996. Every year, the Norwegian state may utilise the fund’s average real return.