kerstin af jochnick : current monetary policy and the economic situation speech by ms kerstin af jochnick, first deputy governor of the sveriges riksbank, at the centre for business and policy studies, stockholm, 21 august 2015. * * * accompanying figures can be found at the end of the speech. economic developments in sweden look positive and the riksbank ’ s expansionary monetary policy is continuing to support the upturn in inflation. i am pleased to note this as i hold an august speech for the fourth year in a row based on the monetary policy decision in july and discuss what has happened during the summer. although i expect most people here follow events on stock exchanges and other markets around the world even during the summer, i hope that a summary of the most important events may be useful prior to assessing the prospects for the autumn. one can say that greece has not entirely unexpectedly been in focus during the summer, too. the forecasts in our july monetary policy report were based on the sequence of events not preventing a recovery in the euro area. while some work remains to be done before the new 3 - year loan programme is formally in place, my assessment is nevertheless that developments so far are in line with the assumptions we made in july. developments in global economic activity since july also support our assessment that we would see a gradual strengthening of growth and that the weak global growth during the first quarter of the year was temporary. the swedish statistics received also support our view that economic activity in sweden is gradually improving and that inflation is continuing to rise. unemployment was lower than expected in june, while gdp growth was higher than expected in the second quarter. although inflation was somewhat lower than we expected in june, it was higher than expected in july. the low interest rates entail risks that could cause problems in the swedish economy further ahead. a high level of indebtedness among households and rapidly rising housing prices could make the swedish economy vulnerable if there were to be a slowdown in economic activity for some reason. the government should therefore quickly ensure that sweden has a framework for macroprudential policy and that finansinspektionen ( the swedish financial supervisory authority ) has a clear mandate to conduct this policy. the assessment and the decision in july the global recovery is continuing after a temporary fall at the beginning of the year, but some concerns remain i would like to begin by looking back at our assessments prior to the decision in july. the year began

svante oberg : public finances and monetary policy speech by mr svante oberg, first deputy governor of the sveriges riksbank, at sveriges akademikers centralorganisation ( saco ), stockholm, 26 april 2010. * * * public finances are of central importance to stable economic development the financial crisis has made it clear just how important it is for a country to have sound public finances and for confidence in fiscal policy to be maintained. the situation in greece and several other countries arouses unpleasant memories of the crisis in sweden in the 1990s. being forced to pay higher and higher interest rates on a rapidly growing central government debt is not an enviable situation to be in, nor is being forced to increase taxes and reduce public expenditure at the same time as unemployment is rising. when such a situation arises it also becomes much more difficult to use monetary policy to inject new life into the economy because the interest rates in the economy begin to be affected more by the credit rating of the central government than by the central bank policy rate. in this speech i intend to discuss the importance of public finances for stable economic development in the slightly longer term and the implications they have for monetary policy. i will not, on the other hand, comment on the formulation of fiscal policy in the short term. i would like to point out that the assessments and values expressed here are my own and that they are not necessarily shared by my colleagues on the executive board of the riksbank. public finances have deteriorated in 2008 and 2009, public expenditure in most industrial nations increased while revenue declined. expenditure in the oecd area as a whole increased as a percentage of gdp from 40 per cent in 2007 to 45 per cent in 2009, while revenue as a percentage of gdp fell from 39 per cent in 2007 to 37 per cent in 2009. 1 ( slide : public finances in the oecd countries ). the situation with regard to general government net lending, that is the relationship between public - sector revenue and expenditure, has therefore deteriorated. the deficit in public finances in the oecd area has increased from 1 per cent of gdp to 8 per cent of gdp. ( slide : general government net lending in the oecd countries ). this has in turn led to a substantial increase in public - sector indebtedness. the gross debt of the public sector in the oecd area has increased from 73 per cent of gdp in 2007 to 90 per cent of