Note H: Financial instruments

At year-end 2017, Akzo Nobel N.V. had outstanding foreign exchange contracts to buy currencies for a total of €1.0 billion (year-end 2016: €1.2 billion), while contracts to sell currencies totaled €1.2 billion (year-end 2016: €0.9 billion). The contracts mainly related to US dollars, Swedish krona, pound sterling and Chinese yuan and all have maturities within one year. These contracts offset the foreign exchange contracts concluded by the subsidiaries, and the fair value changes are recognized in the statement of income to offset the fair value changes on the contracts with the subsidiaries. For information on risk exposure and risk management, see Note 24 of the Consolidated financial statements.