SWEDISH inflation remained unchanged in July at over 9%, official statistics showed today, as central bank rate hikes have struggled to rein in rising prices.

Consumer prices in the Scandinavian country rose by 9.3% year-on-year in July, the same as the month before.

“In July, the primary price increases were those of package holidays and food,” Carl Martensson, statistician at Statistics Sweden, said in a statement.

“These increases were partially offset by decreasing electricity prices, which contributed to a state of unchanged consumer prices in total.”

Rising mortgage costs also contributed 3.1 percentage points to the annual inflation rate, the statistics agency said.

Like its peers in the United States and Europe, Sweden’s central bank has repeatedly hiked its guiding rate in an effort to bring down inflation.

Swedish inflation peaked in December at 12.3%, a more than 30-year high.

Adjusted for fixed interest rates – the figure used by the Riksbank to guide monetary policy – inflation was 6.4% in July.

The Riksbank, which hiked its key rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.75% in late June, has a set target to keep inflation under 2%.

For 2023 as a whole, the central bank expects the Swedish economy to contract 0.5%, and has forecast unadjusted inflation of 8.9%. – AFP, August 15, 2023.