prior to this. energy prices are volatile but usually increase faster than the inflation rate, but they have been unusually stable during the past two years. finally, we have interest expenditure, which has pushed down cpi inflation via lower mortgage rates. why is inflation low? our examination of developments in prices for the sub - groups behind the cpi measures shows that the fall in inflation is broad and not due to any individual component. it is also difficult to point to any individual factor that has led to inflation in sweden being low. it has rather been a combination of factors. one important factor that can hardly be disregarded is monetary policy. the repo rate has been held higher due to consideration of risks linked to household indebtedness than it would have been if the aim was solely to stabilise inflation around the target. it was after the riksbank began to raise the repo rate in summer 2010 that inflation in sweden – unlike inflation in other countries – began to fall ( see figures 2 and 4 ). the monetary policy strategy has most likely contributed to inflation being lower than it would otherwise have been. another important explanation for the low inflation is the weak international economic development. sweden is a small open economy that is affected by international developments. the prices of the goods swedish companies import are affected partly by global market prices of traded goods and services and partly by the exchange rate. 6 the riksbank ’ s method of measuring global market prices of traded goods and services involves weighing together developments in prices of exports in countries that are important for swedish imports. bis central bankers ’ speeches global market prices appear to follow international economic developments relatively well. like global gdp, prices of traded goods and services fell in connection with the financial crisis in 2008. when the international recovery began in 2010, these prices also began to rise. however, in recent years, global economic activity has slowed down again and at the same time the rate of increase in global market prices of traded goods and services has fallen. over the past year, these prices have remained in principle unchanged. the prices swedish companies pay in sek for imports are also affected by the krona exchange rate. the krona weakened substantially against other currencies in connection with the financial crisis, which meant that import prices for consumer goods in the producer channel actually increased quite substantially when measured in swedish krona, despite the fall in international prices. import prices have been falling since the middle of 2012. one contributory factor was the rapid strengthening of the krona

study found that the critical determinant of success was the ability of leaders in those cities to collaborate across sectors around a long - term vision for revitalization. 5 to encourage such collaboration, the boston fed has facilitated working cities challenges in massachusetts, rhode island, and connecticut that reward effective public – private collaboration to reach communitywide goals. for instance, one of the winning cities, lawrence, massachusetts, set goals of increasing the income of parents with children in the lawrence public school system by 15 percent, dramatically increasing parental engagement in the schools and tracking the impact of these efforts on student achievement. a cross - section of partners from the public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors sought to achieve this, in part, by embedding family resource centers within the lawrence public schools. to - date, these efforts have placed over 200 parents in new positions paying 25 percent higher wages on average than their previous jobs, with 200 more parents in the training pipeline. learning about what works reinforces for me the importance of events like this one : events that bring together different stakeholders to talk about the future of their communities and how they can work together to advance common goals. thank you for being our valued partners in this important work. 1 i am grateful to andrew dumont for his assistance in preparing these remarks. these remarks represent my own views, which do not necessarily represent those of the federal reserve board or the federal open market committee. 2 a. dumont, d. davis, j. wascalus, t. cheeks wilson, j. barham, and d. tropp. harvesting opportunity : the power of regional food system investments to transform communities ( st. louis : federal reserve bank of st. louis and board of governors of the federal reserve system, 2017 ). 3 p. ganong, and d. w. shoag. “ why has regional income convergence in the u. s. declined? ” national bureau of economic research working paper no. 23609 ( cambridge, mass : nber, 2017 ). 4 natalie holmes and alan berube. " city and metropolitan inequality on the rise, driven by declining incomes. ” ( washington : brookings institution, january 2016 ). 5 y. k. kodrzycki, a. p. munoz, l. browne, d. green, m. benton, p. chakrabarti, d. plasse, r. walker, and b. zhao. “ reinvigorating springfield ’ s economy