Denmark's foreign exchange reserves fell by more than 4 billion crowns in December after the central bank made its largest intervention in the currency market in three months, it said on Friday.

"We need to go back four years, since there has been an intervention three months in a row, and the central bank is potentially not done," chief economist at Arbejdernes Landsbank, Jeppe Borre, said in a note.

Denmark's foreign exchange reserves fell to 435.4 billion crowns ($65.05 billion) in December from 440.7 billion crowns at the end of November, the central bank said.

It bought 4.1 billion crowns in December to keep the currency stable against the euro, to which it is pegged, it said.

In October and November, the central bank only bought 0.4 and 1.2 billion crowns respectively.

Since the central bank cut its key rate to its lowest level ever in September, mirroring a cut by the ECB, the crown has steadily weakened to levels not seen since 2015.

In 2015, the Danish central bank intervened heavily to stave off foreign investors buying crowns in the hopes that Denmark would abandon its fixed peg to the euro.

"The central bank's rate cut has, all things being equal, been more significant than that of the ECB, which contributes to the weakening of the crown," chief economist at Arbejdernes Landsbank, Jeppe Borre, said in a note.

Copyright Reuters, 2020

Comments

Comments are closed.