Riksbank following US & EU

Interest rate decision, this time, the majority were wrong to believe that the interest rate would be raised. Today’s interest rate announcement came as a surprise to many and means temporary happiness for investors.

After the vote, the results were as follows:

The Riksbank therefore leaves the policy rate unchanged at 4.00%.

It wasn’t just the majority of readers who were surprised. According to a survey by Infront with twelve economists, eight expected the Riksbank to raise the key interest rate by 25 points to 4.25 percent. Four, in turn, predicted unchanged interest rates. Also, some of the major banks (SBAB, SEB etc) predicted that the interest rate increase to be paused, whereas Handelsbanken predcited it to increase.

OMXS30 is up 0.7% at the time of writing, what surprised me more is that the stock market didn’t jump higher than it did. As I understood it, the market had priced in an increase…

At the same time, one should never be surprised if Mr. Market reacts strangely. How many times have I thought that a report should get a certain reaction to a stock, only to be completely wrong.

I was leaning towards unchanged considering that Sweden and the Riksbank are experts at not wanting to stand out. The easiest thing is to simply follow what others are doing.

It is at least positive that sensitive companies due to higher interest rates, may now see some relief.