Swedish factory-gate prices plunged the most on record in August from a year earlier, led by energy, suggesting that costs to consumers may decline in the coming months.
Producer prices dropped 5.9% from the same month last year, marking the biggest decline in the Statistics Sweden data set that dates back to 1990.
Inflation pressures still remain too high for Riksbank policymakers, who raised borrowing costs by a quarter point to 4% last week, and signaled another move is possible as imported price pressure is boosted by krona weakness. They also said they’ll sell about a quarter of the central bank’s currency reserves to guard against losses in case the Nordic currency appreciates.
Svenska Handelsbanken AB’s economist Johan Lof said it’s “too early to tell” if Tuesday’s data “is signal or noise,” pointing to monthly fluctuations in Swedish numbers. “One possibility is that the cooling of global goods-price inflation is now affecting Sweden more than the weakening of the krona,” he added.
The annual rate for consumer goods in the price index for domestic supply declined to 9.2% in August from 11.2% in July, the office said. The overall decline in the index was driven by a 37.5% slump in prices for energy-related products.
--With assistance from Joel Rinneby.
