Interest rates have been king in the foreign exchange market this year, bolstering currencies backed by high or rising rates, such as the US and New Zealand dollars and Brazilian real. Losers have included low-yielding currencies such as the euro and yen.

But the worst-performing currency in the world this year has been the Swedish krona, dubbed "Europe's yen" by one fund manager. Sweden's economy has flourished outside the eurozone. Growth is currently running at 2.3 per cent, with Göran Persson, the prime minister, predicting last week that this figure will rise as high as 3.5 per cent in 2006. Sweden's current account surplus is equivalent to 3 per cent of GDP.