Another objection to central banks publishing their own interest rate forecasts is connected to the functioning of the market. This means that in principle the financial market agents could stop looking for other information if they have access to the central bank’s forecasts for interest rates in the slightly longer term. How the market views economic prospects is normally reflected in the long-term market rates. This source of information could thus be lost and this would impair the functioning of the market. But as I perceive it, there have not been any such signs so far. In addition, I find it very difficult to imagine that the market agents would stop making independent assessments because we are publishing our own view of interest rate developments. They if anyone know that the interest rate path is a forecast and they therefore have strong reasons for continuing to search for information via other channels than the Riksbank. So far it has been clear that we and other market agents have actually had slightly different views regarding how the interest rate will develop in the future. And this is actually a sign that things are as they should be. It is quite natural that forecasters make different judgements, particularly in the slightly longer term. In the long term, there are also more factors than expected monetary policy that have significance for interest rates.
Percentage of those born in Sweden and those born abroad in the labour force, aged 15-74 years. Sources: Eurostat and Statistics Sweden (AKU)  Increased migration in Sweden and abroad During the latter part of the 19th century there was widespread emigration from Sweden to the United States in particular. Around 1.2 million Swedes emigrated to the United States between 1851 and 1930, which at that time was around one fifth of the population. The reasons were in many cases financial, but religious freedom and increased equality were also attractive. There were several factors that enabled emigration. The emergence of the steam ship was one factor. Liberal ideas on economics, politics and freedom – which made a breakthrough around Europe in the 19th century – were other factors. At the beginning of the 20th century, Sweden was an established “emigration country” with more emigrants than immigrants, see Figure 9. This was primarily due to the large-scale emigration, but we also had very few immigrants. In the year 1900 the percentage of people born abroad in relation to the population as a whole was just 0.7 per cent, with most of them coming from other Nordic countries. An interesting fact here is that the immigrants from outside of Europe comprised 90 people from South America, 79 from Africa (56 of whom were from  13 [24]  South Africa) and 87 from Asia.