Sweden's Companies expect inflation to remain subdued

The Riksbank's September Business Survey tells that companies are expecting inflation to remain subdued. The consumer-related companies' price plans for the next-coming 12 months came down somewhat compared to the previous survey.

In light of the upcoming wage negotiations, companies were asked for their wage outlook. Most companies said that the increase in next year's agreements will be about the same as last time. More companies anticipated lower rather than higher wage increases and the most common reason for this was the low inflation.

"Altogether, the Riksbank's survey points to subdued inflation going forward, despite somewhat increased cost pressure in consumer-related retail and services sectors. Hence, the pressure on the Riksbank to ease more has not faded", notes Nordea Bank.

The Riksbank has conducted interviews with companies in the construction, retail, manufacturing and service sectors ahead of every Monetary Policy Report since 2007, thus three times a year. 

In the survey referred to above, the interviews were conducted for 42 of Sweden's largest companies during the period 31 August and 18 September. The previous survey was carried out in May.