Monetary Policy Report October 2017

Economic activity is strong and inflation is close to the target of 2 per cent. Monetary policy needs to remain expansionary for inflation to continue to be close to 2 per cent. The Executive Board of the Riksbank has therefore decided to hold the repo rate unchanged at −0.50 per cent and is expecting, as before, not to raise it until the middle of 2018. The purchases of government bonds will continue during the second half of 2017, as decided by the Executive Board in April. As the present asset purchase programme will run for the remainder of the year, it will provide an opportunity to await further information that could affect a decision in December to possibly extend the purchases. The Executive Board has also taken a decision to extend the mandate that facilitates a quick intervention on the foreign exchange market.