Text
stringlengths
6
555
Date
stringclasses
43 values
Code
stringclasses
43 values
Tag
stringclasses
6 values
Section
stringclasses
2 values
Number
float64
0
4.2
Topic
float64
Label
stringclasses
6 values
Policy rate raised by 0.25 percentage points to 4 per cent
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_title
null
null
null
hawkish
The tighter monetary policy has contributed to inflation now beginning to fall.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
But despite falling now, inflation is still far above the target of 2 per cent.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
Moreover, underlying inflation measured as the CPIF excluding energy is declining at a slower pace than CPIF inflation, which is linked to the fall in energy prices.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
The high inflation is problematic for the economy as a whole and is being felt by households with small margins in particular.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
The development of inflation is going in the right direction.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
But the rapidly rising service prices and the weak krona are helping to sustain inflation and increase the risk that it will not continue falling and approach the target sufficiently quickly.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
To ensure that inflation continues downwards and stabilises around the target within a reasonable period of time, monetary policy needs to be tightened somewhat further.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
The Executive Board has therefore decided to raise the policy rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4 per cent.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
The decision is in line with the assessment in the monetary policy decision in June, which indicated that the policy rate would probably be raised at least one more time this year.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
The higher policy rate is expected to lead to economic activity being somewhat lower in the short run and to development in the labour market slowing down compared with if the policy rate were held unchanged.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
However, the Riksbank assesses that the monetary policy tightening is necessary to bring down inflation and thus contribute to good economic development in the near term.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
If inflation becomes more persistently high, the negative consequences for Swedish growth and the labour market will be much greater.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
This is illustrated in a scenario in Section 1.4.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
The forecast for the policy rate indicates that it can be raised further (see Figure 7).
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
Monetary policy needs to be contractionary for a longer period of time for inflation to fall back and stabilise close to the target of 2 per cent.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
New information and how it is expected to affect the prospects for the economy and inflation will be decisive in determining the monetary policy stance.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Sales of government bonds continuing according to plan
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_title
null
null
null
hawkish
In April, the Riksbank began to sell government bonds.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
As the sales had worked well and had the desired effect, the Executive Board decided in June that it was appropriate to increase the pace of the normalisation of the Riksbank's balance sheet by expanding the sales.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
By making it easier for foreign agents to invest in Swedish assets and improve the functioning of the financial markets, the sales can, all else being equal, help to strengthen the krona and improve the Riksbank’s capacity to reduce inflation.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
The normalisation of the balance sheet should occur gradually and be characterized by predictability.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
The Riksbank is not planning to sell its holdings of non-government bonds.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
If monetary policy were to need tightening further, policy rate hikes are the main and most effective tool.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
If the sales of government bonds continue at the pace now decided, and other bonds are kept until maturity, the asset holdings will amount to just below SEK 150 billion at the end of the forecast period (see Figure 8).
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Inflation will fall towards the target when demand cools
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_title
null
null
null
positive
The policy rate is at a contractionary level, which is helping to dampen demand in the economy.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
This is necessary for inflation to fall back towards the target within a reasonable period of time.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
The Riksbank's forecast indicates that GDP is expected to fall somewhat going forward, at the same time as development in the labour market is slowing down further (see Figure 9).
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
Together with an expected moderate strengthening of the krona in the coming years, this will help to reduce inflation.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
As energy prices are expected to fall rapidly, CPIF inflation is projected to be close to the target in 2024.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
It will take a little longer for inflation measured as the CPIF excluding energy to come close to 2 per cent (see Figure 10).
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
The forecasts are described in more detail in Chapter 3.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Economic prospects remain very uncertain
21/09/2023
Sep-23
sub_sec_title
null
1.3
null
negative
Several factors make economic developments abroad and in Sweden uncertain.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Ultimately, these factors can also affect Swedish inflation prospects and the Riksbank’s monetary policy.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
However, since the economy reopened earlier this year, development has been much weaker than expected, partly due to the declining real estate market.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
As Sweden has extensive trade with Germany, a severe slowdown there would in turn have a negative effect on Swedish growth.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
The Swedish real economy could be negatively impacted by the highly leveraged commercial real estate sector.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
Some companies are already facing problems, now that interest rates have risen.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
However, there are major differences between different real estate companies, and those with stronger balance sheets are better equipped to deal with higher interest rates.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Moreover, the banks are well placed to continue lending to robust companies, and many real estate companies are now trying to reduce their indebtedness.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
But the problems in the highly indebted companies nevertheless pose a risk to the Swedish economy.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
The forecast for household consumption in Sweden is very uncertain, with risks on both the upside and the downside.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Swedish households’ sensitivity to interest rates is high, both from an historical perspective and from an international perspective.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
There is a risk that household demand will slow down more than expected when the interest hikes take full effect.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
Households in general built up large savings during the pandemic, however, and estimates imply that they have considerable savings capital left (see the article “Household savings increased significantly during the pandemic”).
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
If they were to choose to use more of their savings for consumption going forward, demand could become stronger than the Riksbank is forecasting.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
But partly because there is no up-to-date microdata on how savings are allocated among households, it is difficult to assess how they will act.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
A further factor that could lead to an unexpectedly high consumption demand is the stronger-than-expected development of the Swedish labour market over the past year.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
If this development continues, disposable income, and therefore also demand, would probably become higher than in the Riksbank’s forecast.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
The housing market is also creating uncertainty in the Swedish economy.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
Last year, prices fell rapidly.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
But this year, prices have been stable and even risen somewhat, despite mortgage rates being raised further.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
At the same time, turnover is unusually low, which makes the future development difficult to predict.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
The Riksbank's forecast is that prices will fall somewhat during the autumn, and then gradually begin to rise again.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
If prices instead continue along this year's trend, housing prices could become higher than in the forecast.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
This would mean that household consumption in particular could develop more strongly than expected, and perhaps also housing investment.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
positive
But there is also a risk that prices will fall even further than is now being assumed, when homes need to be sold at lower prices.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
The effect on demand and inflation would then be the reverse.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Alternative scenarios for inflation and monetary policy
21/09/2023
Sep-23
sub_sec_title
null
1.4
null
neutral
The risks described above can affect inflation prospects and monetary policy in Sweden, so that the policy rate is different from in the main scenario (the forecast).
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
dovish
In the scenarios described here, we will take a closer look at how such risks could lead to a different development in inflation and monetary policy than in the forecast.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
We therefore describe in this section two scenarios for inflation: one where inflation is higher than expected, and one where inflation falls faster than in the main scenario.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
The first scenario, where inflation is higher than forecast, is based on renewed supply disturbances in the global economy.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
As described in Section 1.3, such disturbances can occur as a consequence of both increased geopolitical unease and of climate- and weather-related problems and can, for example, lead to higher prices for energy and food in the world market.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
It is assumed in the scenario that the real economic development will be weaker than forecast, at the same time as inflation will be higher.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
This is the normal pattern following supply disturbances, when GDP and prices develop in opposite directions.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
In the second scenario, demand is assumed to be weaker than expected.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
As described in Section 1.3, this could occur for several different reasons, both due to international developments and factors related to domestic demand.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
In this type of scenario, inflation will become lower than forecast, at the same time as the real economy shows weaker development than expected.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
New supply shocks push up inflation and motivate tighter monetary policy, despite poorer real economic developments
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_title
null
null
null
negative
In the first scenario, it is assumed that supply shocks will lead to direct effects on energy and food prices.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
But it is also assumed that indirect effects and secondary effects will occur.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
This is in line with research that indicates that households’ inflation expectations are very much affected by energy and food prices in particular.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
In earlier scenarios with an unexpectedly high inflation rate, two monetary policy alternatives have been shown: initially the same monetary policy as in the main scenario and then a monetary policy reaction that tries to tame the higher inflation.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
One difference now is that we will start by looking at the development when monetary policy reacts and tries to tame higher inflation.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
None
After that, we will look at a development where monetary policy initially does not react, but is gradually forced to do so, as inflation would otherwise become entrenched at a level above the target for a longer period of time.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
The higher inflation in the scenario is illustrated by the light blue line in the left-hand image in Figure 11.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
In this scenario, growth would be weaker than in the forecast, which is shown by the light blue line in Figure 12.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
In theory, this would mean that one has to decide between stabilising the real economy and reducing inflation.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
But in the present situation when inflation is far too high, the focus is on bringing down inflation.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
It is therefore assumed in the scenario that the policy rate will be raised to a level between 0.5 and 1 percentage points over the forecast in the main scenario, which is shown in the light blue line in the right hand image in Figure 11.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
The policy rate would begin to be raised more than in the main scenario relatively instantly, to prevent inflation from becoming entrenched in a situation where it is already too high.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
Such a monetary policy would contribute to inflation stabilising around the target within a two-year period.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
We will now look at an alternative where monetary policy at first does not react to the unexpectedly high inflation.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
This alternative is illustrated by the red lines in the images in Figure 11 and Figure 12.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Despite inflation being higher than expected, the Riksbank initially follows the earlier plan and holds the policy rate at a level around 4 per cent.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
One might ask why monetary policy would be conducted in this way.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Some reasons could be that greater weight is attached to stabilising the real economy, in a situation where economic activity has already weakened, or that the breadth of the upturn in inflation is underestimated.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
However, it is assumed in the scenario that the lack of monetary policy reaction leads to inflation expectations rising, which poses the risk of inflation not stabilising around the target even in the long run.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
The policy rate is therefore raised gradually when these problems become clear.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
But to stabilise inflation around the target within the forecast period, the policy rate would need to be raised much more than if the reaction had come earlier.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
As shown in Figure 12, the real economy could in the shortterm develop more strongly if monetary policy does not react, but in the longer run the development will be worse.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
This is connected to the large interest rate increases that would be needed to restore confidence in the inflation target once inflation expectations have begun to drift upwards.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
hawkish
Lower demand reduces both growth and inflation, but there can nevertheless be reasons to wait a bit before making rate cuts
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_title
null
null
null
neutral
Demand can be weaker than in the Riksbank's forecast for many reasons, which can stem from both global and domestic factors.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
For instance, developments in China and Germany may become weaker and affect demand in the global economy negatively, or Swedish households may reduce their consumption more than expected in Sweden (see Section 1.2).
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
negative
When demand falls, the possibility for companies to pass on cost increases to consumer prices declines.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral
Inflation will then be lower than in the main scenario, which is illustrated by the light blue and red lines in the left hand image in Figure 13.
21/09/2023
Sep-23
par_body
null
null
null
neutral