Uncertainty about the US debt situation has led to a larger sale of US government bonds.
The Teachers’ Pension has sold US government bonds worth DKK 3.5 billion over the past month.
According to investment director Morten Malle, the sale was due, among other things, to uncertainty about the long-term US debt situation and the independence of the US central bank.
“We see increasing uncertainty about the US’s long-term debt situation, monetary policy, inflation and the dollar exchange rate, and therefore at the end of December we sold US government bonds for DKK 3.5 billion and instead bought German government bonds,” says the investment director.
The most important task for the Teachers’ Pension is to create a good long-term return for its members, who include teachers, trainers, school principals and teachers in Greenland, and the latest sale will not have any consequences for this.
“When you factor it all in, German government bonds give roughly the same return as American bonds, so the restructuring does not affect the expected return,” says Morten Malle.
Lærernes Pension is one of several Danish pension companies that has chosen to reduce its investments in the otherwise safe haven that US government bonds have been considered to be for many years.
Also in Sweden, the large Swedish pension company Alecta has sold off government bonds from the US for around DKK 50 billion.
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