Stockholm (AFP) – Sweden’s central bank took its key interest rate further into negative territory Wednesday in a surprise move aimed at supporting a return to inflation.
The Riksbank cut its repo rate by 0.15 percentage points to -0.25 percent and said it was buying government bonds worth 30 billion kronor ($3.4 billion, 3.2 billion euros) to prevent an appreciating krona from hindering an uptick in inflation.
Read MoreCelebrations over Greece returning to bond markets mask a whole new problem: Athens hasn’t returned to economic health. Rather, it’s the bond market which has gone quite mad.
The Greek economy lies in ruins. After six years (yes, six years!) of depression, 27.5 percent of the workforce, and some 58.3 percent of youth, are unemployed. Over a quarter of the economy (26 percent) has been destroyed on the sacrificial altar of saving the flawed euro, spurring Athens’ lost decade. True, unemployment peaked nearer to 30 percent, but the economy can barely be said to be recovering with gusto…
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