Riksbank Returns to Crisis-Level Rates to Prevent Deflation
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Sweden’s central bank cut its main interest rate by a more-than-estimated half a percentage point and predicted no increases until the end of next year to shield the largest Nordic economy from deflation.
The repurchase rate was reduced to 0.25 percent and the deposit rate to minus 0.5 percent, the Stockholm-based bank said today. Sixteen of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast a cut to 0.5 percent. Governor Stefan Ingves and First Deputy Governor Kerstin af Jochnick were outvoted 4-2 on the board as they sought a quarter point cut.