Investing.com – Sweden’s CPIF inflation rate rose to 3.0% in July from 2.8% in June, reaching its highest level since the beginning of 2024, according to data released on Thursday.
This inflation figure is in line with the consensus forecast of 3.0%, while the CPIF excluding energy slightly fell from 3.3% to 3.1% in the same period.
CPIF inflation, excluding the impact of interest rate changes on prices, serves as the Swedish Central Bank (Riksbank) target indicator for monetary policy decisions.
This high inflation index may encourage Riksbank officials to keep the current policy rate unchanged in the upcoming meeting at the end of this month.
Capital Economics analysts predict that the central bank will hold the policy rate at 2% in the near future.
Businesses in Sweden continue to report ongoing price pressures, indicating that the core CPIF excluding energy could stay near 3% for most of the next twelve months.
This steady inflation, combined with expectations of faster economic growth by year-end, supports maintaining the current interest rate.
Detailed analysis of the inflation data will be available next week, which could provide additional insight into whether the slight decline in the core index is affected by a reduced services inflation, particularly as tourism-related services have shown unusually high readings in June.