STOCKHOLM: Swedish annual inflation in February stood at 1.7 percent, unchanged from January and below the Riksbank's forecasts for the third month in a row, making it more likely that a first rate hike in seven years will be postponed.
The central bank had expected the CPIF index, which measures consumer prices using a fixed interest rate, to show inflation of 1.85 percent in February compared to a year earlier.
Consumer prices grew 0.7 percent in February from the previous month, the statistics office (SCB) said on Wednesday.
Analysts in a Reuters poll saw CPIF inflation in February at 1.7 percent year-on-year, and at 0.8 percent from January.
The central bank's inflation target is 2 percent.
"The way it looks now, we believe the Riksbank will lower the rate path a bit (at its April meeting)," Olle Holmgren, economist at SEB said.
Swedbank said it expected a 10 basis point rate hike in October. Nordea said it sees no rate hike this year.
Inflation was around the central bank's 2 percent target for most of last year, encouraging the central bank to forecast that it would begin tightening rates in mid-2018.
But price pressures have eased since then and in February, the Riksbank gave a more uncertain picture of when it expected to hike, pointing only to the second half of the year.
CPIF inflation excluding volatile energy prices was 1.5 percent in February from a year earlier, unchanged from the previous month. The central bank forecast for this measures was 1.65 percent
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