New issue of the Riksbank’s journal Economic Review

News This issue of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review contains articles on topics that span a broad field. The first three articles deal with payments, from different perspectives. This is followed by anarticle giving a historical perspective on monetary policy, inflation and war. The last two articles deal with the Riksbank's asset purchases and households’ inflation expectations.

The articles in the second issue of the Riksbank’s journal Economic Review for 2022:

What is money and what is the role of the state in the payments market?

Governor Stefan Ingves, Eva Julin, Stefan Lindskog, Gabriel Söderberg and David Vestin describe the fundamental changes taking place in the payment system. This means, among other things, that weare moving rapidly towards a more or less cashless society. The authors argue that the state should take its responsibility to ensure that the payment system of the future works well in a global digital world. Part of this responsibility is to ensure that Sweden issues a central bank digital currency (CBDC) if money issued by the state is to remain widely available to the public.

Cross-border payments in the spotlight

Carl Andreas Claussen and Anders Mølgaard Pedersen provide an easy-to-read introduction to cross-border payments, what options are available, how they work, what they cost, and how they are regulated. They also report on what is happening in the field, including as a result of the G20 roadmap to improve cross-border payments.

Remittances – the overlooked payments

Nina Engström and André Reslow write about remittances, i.e. the cross-border payments we often associate with the funds migrants send to friends and relatives in their countries of origin. The authors describe how remittances can work and why they are important. They also describe Swedish statistics on remittances, and provide a first assessment of how well Sweden is meeting the G20 targets for remittances.

Monetary policy and inflation in times of war

Mikael Apel and Henry Ohlsson go back in history to study the relationship between war and inflation. Are there any common denominators between what is happening now after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and previous war episodes? They also look back at times when wars have been associated with rising inflation in Sweden, and discuss the lessons from this.

Understanding the Riksbank's asset purchases: who sold bonds to the Riksbank?

Meredith Beechey Österholm studies the Riksbank's bond purchases since 2015. By analysing data from the financial market accounts and the Riksbank's database of assets holdings, she studies which actors have reduced their holdings of the assets purchased by the Riksbank. The results of this analysis can be used to better understand the transmission of bond purchases.

Inflation illiteracy – a micro-data analysis

Fredrik N. G. Andersson, Erik Hjalmarsson and Pär Österholm study survey data from the National Institute of Economic Research’s Economic Tendency Survey on Swedish households' perceptions of the current rate of inflation and their expectations of the future rate of inflation. They analyse what percentage of households can be considered to be poorly informed about inflation (as their responses deviate significantly from the historical pattern of inflation), and what characterises these households.

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Updated 16/12/2022