collective pension saving in the swedish financial system. 3 the annual ceiling is set to 7. 5 income base amounts. for 2019, the ceiling was at a labour income of sek 43, 300 a month. 4 the annual income cut - off point has been set at sek 511, 500 for 2021. this corresponds to monthly labour income of sek 42, 600. the inquiry ’ s terms of reference can be accessed at https : / / www. regeringen. se / rattsliga - dokument / kommittedirektiv / 2021 / 01 / dir. - 20214 /. 3 have discussed so far. two examples that come to mind are the wealth created by individual pension saving and the wealth created by saving in life insurance. it is currently unclear how these types of wealth are distributed, as they are the result of the decisions of private individuals. international comparison so what about abroad? is there hidden wealth in other countries as well? figure 2 presents an international comparison for a selection of countries. i have retrieved data from oecd ( 2019 ). 6 the blue bars show wealth in pension scheme funds in relation to gdp. the red bars show wealth in buffer funds for national pension systems. as is shown in the figure, there is very substantial wealth in the danish pension scheme agreements. in the united states, canada and australia, there is also very considerable amounts in funded pension scheme agreements. as far as sweden is concerned, the importance of the national swedish pension funds is self - evident. the funded wealth is not as large as the norwegian oil fund, but denmark, for example, with funds equal to about 200 per cent of gdp, is not that far behind. among the euro countries, the netherlands and, to a lesser degree, finland stick out as they have substantial funded pension wealth. however, such wealth is negligible in germany, france, italy, spain, belgium, austria and greece. figure 2. funded pension wealth in relation to nominal gdp in 2019, per cent. pension scheme funds buffer funds for national pension systems source : oecd ( 2019 ), table 9. 2. 6 an earlier comparison of this kind can be found in ohlsson et al. ( 2020 ), appendix d. 4 mandatory collective pension funds ( like the premium pension system ) or quasimandatory collective pension funds ( like the saf - lo pension agreement ) can be found in just less than half of oecd countries.

7 the countries in the figure that have mandatory systems are denmark, the netherlands, australia, sweden, finland and norway. but as far as norway is concerned, the wealth is negligible compared to the wealth in the oil fund. i do not have access to information showing how funded pension wealth is distributed in those countries that do not have mandatory systems based on labour income. neither is it possible to say whether funded pension wealth mitigates the negative effects of expansionary monetary policy and elevated asset prices on wealth distribution. however, it is clear that no such mitigating effect can reasonably exist in most euro countries, as there is no funded pension wealth in these countries. negative effects alleviated in sweden the reasoning in this speech is not about three things. first, the introduction of the national supplementary pension system with associated national pension funds was controversial at the time. 8 however, the national pension funds are now with us. second, opinion is divided as to whether funded pension systems are to be preferred to paying pensions from day - to - day tax revenue. but, as i said, the pension funds are now with us. third, the global downward trend in real interest rates has made it more difficult to receive return on wealth, especially if investors want to hold safe financial assets like government securities. the assets whose prices have increased are riskier. but this is not what the reasoning in this speech is about. this is what the speech is about : in sweden, there is a comparatively large share of wealth in collective pension funds that has been built up with the help of mandatory contributions based on the labour income of individuals. this wealth is therefore more evenly distributed than other wealth. when asset prices rise, more people therefore benefit from the increase in wealth than if there had been no collective pension funds. when inflation in sweden is expected to be below target, the riksbank conducts expansionary monetary policy. the aim is to push inflation up towards the target. at the same time, output and employment will also rise. but expansionary monetary policy also has other consequences. for example, rising asset prices lead to more uneven wealth distribution. in sweden, however, this effect is mitigated by the fact that a comparatively large share of the wealth is oecd ( 2019 ), table 9. 1, see also oecd ( 2020 ). 8 ylva hasselberg and i have written about this, see hasselberg and ohlsson ( 2016 ). 5 in collective pension