Need for new statistics on household assets and liabilities
News The Riksbank would like to see a committee of experts review how new statistics on households’ assets and liabilities can be gathered. These statistics would improve the scope for the Riksbank and Finansinspektionen to maintain stability in the financial system. The proposal is put forward in a submission to the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament), which is supported by Statistics Sweden and Finansinspektionen.
In Sweden there is insufficient knowledge of which groups of households are highly indebted, the scope of their debts and how vulnerable they are to shocks in the economy. There is also insufficiently clear legal support for Swedish authorities to gather in the data needed to produce adequate statistics in this field.
The Riksbank considers that detailed information on household assets and liabilities would provide essential support for in-depth financial analysis and improve the Riksbank's and Finansinspektionen’s capacity to counteract financial instability. The submission points to Statistics Sweden as the probably most suitable authority to collect this kind of data.
“Analysis based on microdata on households’ assets and liabilities would give the Riksbank better capacity to conduct a well balanced monetary policy and Finansinspektionen better capacity to evaluate the effects of various macroprudential policy measures. Other public authorities could also find the data useful,” says Jyry Hokkanen, Head of the Statistics Division at the Riksbank.