The gold and foreign exchange reserves form a large part of the Riksbank’s financial assets. At the end of 2024, the value of the gold reserve amounted to SEK 117.5 billion and the foreign exchange reserves to SEK 460.2 billion. The Riksbank has gold and foreign exchange reserves primarily to be able to offer banks liquidity support in foreign currencies in times of financial stress and to enable the Riksbank to carry out currency interventions when necessary. In order to be well prepared, the foreign exchange reserves mainly consist of government bonds with high credit ratings in US dollars and euros. For the same reason, there are also some holdings in pounds sterling, as well as Norwegian and Danish kroner. To spread risks and increase returns, a small share of assets in Australian and Canadian dollars is also included.^[37] At year-end 2024, the currency distribution in the reserves excluding gold was: 63.3 per cent US dollars, 20.7 per cent euros, 5.4 per cent pounds sterling, 2.5 per cent Norwegian kroner, 1.2 per cent Danish kroner, 4.4 per cent Australian dollars and 2.5 per cent Canadian dollars.

In addition, a large part of the Riksbank’s financial assets consists of securities in Swedish kronor. These were purchased primarily during the covid-19 pandemic to support the economy and stabilise financial markets.^[38] Purchases during the pandemic included nominal and real government bonds, treasury bills, municipal bonds, covered bonds (mortgage bonds), corporate bonds and commercial paper. The Riksbank also purchased nominal government bonds for monetary policy purposes between 2015 and 2020. These purchases were discontinued in 2023. The holdings of assets in Swedish kronor have since declined as bonds have matured and as a result of the sales of government bonds that began in April 2023. At the end of 2024, the value of holdings in Swedish kronor amounted to SEK 437.3 billion. In November 2024, the Riksbank decided to keep a long-term holding of nominal government bonds corresponding to SEK 20 billion.^[39] See “Decision on trade in Swedish nominal government bonds”, in Minutes of the Monetary Policy Meeting, Annex B, November 2024, Sveriges Riksbank. Sales of government bonds will continue until this level is reached or another decision is taken.