(Bloomberg) -- Sweden’s core inflation rate rose just above the Riksbank’s 2% target in a flash reading published just as the central bank is preparing to announce its next easing move.
A measure of annual price increases that strips out energy increased to 2.1% last month, according to a preliminary estimate published Thursday by Statistics Sweden. That’s just above the 2% median expectation of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The reading comes after inflation in Sweden has subsided rapidly, allowing the central bank to unwind its restrictive monetary policy as one of the first developed-world monetary authorities.
In a decision made on Wednesday and due to be announced Thursday morning, the Riksbank is expected to cut its benchmark rate by half a percentage point, to 2.75%, increasing the pace of easing to aid a listless economy.
In October, the CPIF rate of inflation that the Riksbank targets was 1.5% in annual terms. That marks the fifth consecutive month the gage has fallen short of 2%, raising concern that price increases could continue to undershoot that aim unless an expected economic recovery gets off the ground.
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