Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1395

Rh kronor, and the total expenditure to 8,016,794 kronor, leaving a surplus of 1,018,577 kronor.

Money and Credit.

The Riksbank, or National Bank of Sweden, belongs entirely to the State and is managed by directors elected for three years by the Diet, except one, the president, who is designated by the king. It is a bank of exchange to regulate financial relations with foreign countries, it accepts and pays interest on deposits of money, and on sufficient security it lends money for purposes in which there is no speculative element. The Bank is under the guarantee of the Diet, its capital and reserve capital are fixed by its constitution, and its note circulation is limited by the value of its metallic stock and its assets in current accounts at home and abroad; but its actual circulation is kept far within this limit.

The following table gives statistics of the National Bank, private banks, and joint-stock banks in Sweden for January 1, 1898:—

The savings-banks statistics (exclusive of Post Oflfice) are as follows:—

At the end of 1896 the Post Office Savings Bank had 451,872 depositors and 49,733,810 kronor of deposits.