Executive Board at Riksdag Committee on Finance’s hearing on monetary policy 2015–2024

The period under review was characterised by major and interacting challenges: the pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and inflation that was first too low and then too high. At the start of the hearing, Mr Thedéen commented on some of the evaluators' conclusions and referred to lessons learned by the Executive Board, for instance regarding the Riksbank's purchases and sales of securities.  

“In unusually difficult monetary policy circumstances, asset purchases are a possible measure. But the threshold for that should be high. Based on the experiences of recent years, there are reasons for us to develop our analysis and framework for how these measures should be designed and finalised, taking into account both costs and risks.” 

According to Mr Thedéen, one lesson from the high-inflation period is that the Riksbank needs to analyse more high-frequency and disaggregated data to be able to see more quickly when inflation dynamics change. 

“Today, we are looking even more at ‘micro data’ and we are constantly striving to better understand how different shocks propagate through the economy. To avoid groupthink, we also work actively to bring in different perspectives and views from our researchers as part of the drafting process for interest rate decisions.”    

The Executive Board also shares the evaluators' view that the exchange of information between fiscal and monetary policy needs to be increased. 

“This is an issue that we at the Riksbank have raised before. For some time now, we have also been holding regular discussions with the Ministry of Finance on the economic situation. The dual prohibition on instructions – that authorities may not give and the Riksbank may not receive instructions – creates a clear framework for the relationship without restricting an open discussion of the economic situation,” said Mr Thedéen.