Riksbankers assert ‘freedom’ from world

Bloomberg

Riksbank policy makers look intent on bringing an end to almost half a decade of negative interest rates, according to minutes from their most recent meeting.
The central bank earlier this month delivered an upbeat assessment of the economy and signalled a plan to raise rates towards the end of the year or early next year. The move came amid growing uncertainty over the global economy, which is weighing heavily on export-dependent Sweden.
“Several members emphasized that even though the Riksbank can’t act independently of global developments, in many respects Sweden is in a more favorable situation compared with other countries, with continued reasonably strong economic activity and inflation that has been close to target for some time,” the bank said. “The Riksbank therefore has slightly greater degrees of freedom than previously to deviate from monetary policy abroad.”
As expected, Deputy Governor Per Jansson had major doubts about continuing to signal a rate increase. The upbeat minutes were clouded by a key report, which showed unemployment unexpectedly rose to 7.4 percent in August.
Deputy Governor Henry Ohlsson said, “The Swedish economy is continuing to demonstrate a high level of activity, higher than in the euro area, for example. Inflation is on target. In Sweden, we can conduct our own monetary policy and there are good reasons at present to take advantage of this possibility. At the same time, there is no avoiding that, in the slightly longer term, there is reason not to push on as rapidly with the approaching rate rises that previously adopted repo rate paths have indicated.”