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Minutes of the Riksbank meeting of Feb 11th published yesterday showed that the decision taken by Riksbank's Executive Board is a voting result and not a consensus decision. On 11th February the Riksbank lowered its key rate surprisingly notably by 15bp to now -0.50%.
Interesting to note was the fact that the central bank governor Stefan Ingves and Martin Flodén took opposing views at the meeting. Ingves, who was in the past considered to be a major hawk, is now proactively supporting an expansionary approach - a key rate cut and the downward revision of the rate path. Floden was in favour of staying pat so as to keep the powder dry for future emergencies.
So what this means for the krona? "A continuous but slow uptrend of the SEK as a result of the positive Swedish economy and the expansionary ECB. At the same time there is still Riksbank's threat to intervene on the FX market should krona appreciate too rapidly." said Commerzbank in a research note.
