STOCKHOLM: Sweden's central bank said on Friday it had picked Uppsala University professor Henry Ohlsson for the vacant seat on its rate-setting board, replacing policy dove Karolina Ekholm who quit the Riksbank in October.
As well as his academic post, Ohlsson is also a member of the board of the Swedish Public Employment Service and is Chair of the Economic Council of Swedish Industry.
He will take up his post on Jan. 12 and will take part in the bank's next monetary policy meeting in February.
"Mr Ohlsson has considerable academic experience and has conducted research into areas linked to the labour market, wage formation and taxation," Riksbank General Council Chairwoman Susanne Eberstein said in a statement.
"This provides a good complement to the other members of the Board."
Analysts said his background in labour market research might suggest he will lean towards a dovish position on monetary policy.
"The Riksbank's Executive Board is currently unanimous in pursuing an expansionary monetary policy and the outlook for monetary (policy) doesn't change with Ohlsson on the board, we think," banking group Nordea said in a note.
Ohlsson's predecessor Ekholm, who left the bank to take up a role as an adviser to Sweden's new centre-left government, had consistently argued for looser policy since the financial crisis to push up low inflation and bring down unemployment.
She and colleague Lars Svensson, who quit the bank in 2013, were largely ignored by the majority of the six-member board who wanted to prevent imbalances building up in the economy and pushed through rapid rate hikes in 2010 and 2011.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called the Riksbank's policy "sadomonetarist". Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves has defended the bank's actions as merited by relatively strong growth and high levels of household debt.
With Sweden now flirting with deflation, the board has been forced to backtrack. Rates are now at zero and the central bank said this week it was ready to take unconventional measures in February if that should prove necessary.
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