The CPIX will be phased out of our reports and our communication in general. This will not have a tangible effect on the actual interest rate decisions in the future. However, we hope that this change will make the way we conduct our monetary policy clearer.
For instance, there is great uncertainty over what the consequences of the turmoil in the world financial markets might be for economic developments. In Sweden there are signs of a slowdown and GDP increased at a slightly slower rate than expected, according to statistics published by Statistics Sweden just over a week ago. At the same time, inflation is high and above the target. World market prices for some commodities, such as oil, have risen sharply over a period of time and this is a challenge for central banks around the world. New information of significance for inflation is constantly coming in. As the Riksbank has also pointed out on several occasions, inflation expectations have risen in recent months and they are above our target of 2 per cent. There may be several different reasons for this. The most important reason is probably that actual inflation has risen and this usually leads to expectations rising. The Riksbank monitors inflation expectations closely; the important thing is that they do not become entrenched at a high level, whatever the reasons behind them. To curb expectations we would have to act more forcefully. To summarise – our strategy has not changed and our target stands firm. We will continue to use a large number of alternative measures of inflation in our work, not least to illustrate the direct effects of our own interest rate policy. But the focus will be on our target variable, the CPI.