Sweden: Consumer spending contracting? – TDS

Analysts at TD Securities note that Sweden’s retail sales contracted by -0.4% MoM in November, quite a bit softer than the 0.3% gain that markets had been looking for.

Key Quotes

“The downside is likely due to the timing of Black Friday sales, which were later in the month than usual and are more likely to be reflected in the December data, as was the case in the UK and other countries.”

“We also had the minutes from the December Riksbank meeting, where they delivered a 25bps rate hike to 0.00%. The main takeaway is that the Executive Board is seems to be split on how to best react to any downside developments that require further stimulus, as well as how long to wait before raising rates again. This points to the policy rate being hold for a considerable length of time from here, as there would need to be fairly convincing evidence to get the Riksbank on board to change the policy rate again.”