A EUROMONEY SURVEY - MARCH 1996
Niche market offers select investment opportunities After rapid growth in the past few years - driven mainly by budget deficit financing - prospects for foreign investors in the Nordic bond markets look increasingly dull. One of the biggest problems, despite growth, is size. For example, by 1994, the four markets (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) had publicly-issued bonds of around $550 billion; but government bonds only amounted to $17 billion in Norway, $20 billion in Finland, $77 billion in Sweden and $90 billion in Denmark, making a total of only around $200 billion. Moreover, the major local banks - which dominate these markets - have little interest in fostering their development because they make more money lending to clients than arranging bond issues for them. As a result, most Nordic bond markets remain small, insular and unsophisticated by international standards. For example, the Swedish Export...
