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(Reuters) – The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, kept its main policy rate unchanged at 4.00% on Wednesday as expected, adding that inflationary pressures had eased enough for the policy rate to be reduced in coming months .
“It is likely that the policy rate could be reduced in May or June if the inflation outlook remains favorable,” the central bank said in a statement.
After two years of rapid rate hikes, headline inflation in the country is now close to the central bank’s 2% target, having peaked at more than 10%.
In February, the Riksbank estimated that rates had peaked and that it would be possible to ease policy in the first half of the year.
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Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a status quo on rates in March and anticipate a cut in May or June, like the Riksbank, which will announce its next monetary policy decision on May 8.
(Reporting Johan Ahlander, Niklas Pollard, Anna Ringstrom and Simon Johnson; French version Diana Mandiá and Kate Entringer, editing by Zhifan Liu)
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