Sweden’s inflation hits 9.7% during September; highest level in 30 years

Inflation keeps breaking records in Sweden, with the CPIF (Consumer Price Index with fixed interest rate) 12-month inflation hitting 9.7 per cent in September, the highest level in three decades, Statistics Sweden said.

“Higher electricity prices and higher prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed to the high inflation in September,” Caroline Neander, a price statistician, said in a statement on Thursday.

Electricity prices have increased by 54.2 per cent, and food and non-alcoholic beverages by 16.1 per cent over the past 12 months, Xinhua news agency reported.

Prices also increased for repair and maintenance of dwellings, furnishing and household equipment, restaurant visits, accommodation services as well as miscellaneous goods and services.

According to analysts, the fight against soaring inflation is far from over.

“Few believe that it has peaked yet,” Alexander Noren, an economic commentator at Swedish Television (SVT), said.

To rein in inflation to its 2-per cent target, the Riksbank, the country’s central bank, has implemented a string of policy rate increases to today’s 1.75 per cent.

The combination of inflation and rising interest rates will lead to stagnation, the National Institute of Economic Research (NIER) said in a report released at the end of September.

The inflation may, however, peak by early 2023, Frida Bratt, a savings economist at Nordnet bank, told SVT on Thursday.

“The policy rate increases will have had an effect by then and since the economy is also stagnating, Swedes will be penny-pinching,” Bratt said.

–IANS

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