Sweden: Inflation ticks down in January
Consumer prices in Sweden fell 0.8% in January on a month-on-month basis according to data released by Statistics Sweden (SCB). This contrasted December’s 0.4% rise and was slightly below market expectations. The SCB’s data showed that the drop was driven by lower prices for clothing and footwear, transport and food and non-alcoholic beverages. January’s fall was also accentuated by a re-weighting of items in the inflation basket in order to account for changing consumption patterns.
Inflation dipped from 1.7% in December to 1.6% in January. As a result, inflation moved slightly further from the Riksbank’s 2.0% target, but was still firmly within the 1.0%-3.0% tolerance band. Meanwhile, annual average inflation came in at 1.8%, matching December’s figure. The CPI with interest rates held constant (CPIF) was 1.7% in January, down from 1.9% in December.