Jansson: The inflation outlook is much brighter

“One should be cautious about drawing far-reaching conclusions from individual monthly outcomes. But there is nevertheless no denying that the latest outcome for October contains a large number of changes in the price picture that clearly indicate that inflationary pressures are now easing,” Mr Jansson continued.

According to Mr Jansson, the fact that the inflation picture is now brighter than before is also supported by the fact that companies' price plans have been adjusted downwards, that producer prices for consumer goods are not increasing as quickly and that international inflation has become lower. "The current cooling of the Swedish economy also reduces the risks of inflation becoming entrenched at too high a level."

According to Mr Jansson, the recent appreciation of the krona is another factor that reduces the risk of an unmanageable inflation trend: "While one should be cautious about assuming that the favourable development of the krona will continue, it does provide some breathing space for the time being."

Mr Jansson emphasised that conducting monetary policy is always a balancing act between waiting for more inflation to be able to draw more reliable conclusions and acting reasonably promptly so as not to end up “behind the curve”. “I think that there is now sufficient information for not raising the policy rate further. The fact that the policy-rate path continues to rise somewhat at the beginning of next year indicates, however, that we are fully prepared to do more if it proves necessary. Hopefully, we will not need to, although of course you never can be certain,” concluded Mr Jansson.