Nordnet: the crown strategy strengthened the crown

The krone has strengthened about 6 percent since the turn of the year in an index against most currency pairs, says Alexander Gustafsson at Nordnetbolggen. The biggest change has been against the US dollar, which now costs around SEK 8.40. In March, when the pandemic accelerated, $ 1 cost SEK 10.50, an 11 percent change.

Other currencies that the crown has acquired are mainly the Norwegian krone, 10 percent, and the British pound, 9 percent. The variation against the euro is 3 percent in favor of the crown.

Irony of fate

It’s something of the irony of fate that when the Swedish krona is strong against other currencies, meaning that traveling abroad will be cheaper for Swedes, then the flight will stop at the runways, reflects Alexander Gustafsson.

Cryptocurrencies have also “totally exploded” this year. The largest and most popular cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum, and they have also had the strongest development during the year.

“Speculative behavior”

It has been very good for Ethereum, which is up 389 percent, followed by Bitcoin, 190 percent.

Alexander Gustafsson explains the rise in the price of cryptocurrencies by the fact that more and more people are looking for alternatives when global monetary policy continues to inflate common currencies. But the speculative behavior of investors is also an important explanation for the fact that cryptocurrency price movements have been so strong this year.

Precious metals have also experienced strong development in 2020, mainly during the period when the crisis was at its worst. So both gold and silver had a strong momentum. Since then, more and more vaccine news has taken a bigger place in news reports, precious metals have declined a bit, but they are still clearly more expensive than last year.

House prices are rising

Last but not least, house prices in Sweden also developed strongly during the year. It is the houses and villas that have risen the most in price as more and more people request this type of accommodation when the kitchen is no longer suitable as a home office. The median price of villas has increased 13 percent since the turn of the year, while the price increase for houses (including condos) is 10 percent.

“The halted amortization requirements and financial stimulus have given Swedish home buyers greater self-confidence,” says Alexander Gustafsson.

Graphic: The following tables show the evolution of the prices of precious metals, cryptocurrencies and selected currency pairs during 2020: