Sweden will investigate if there are unjustified price increases

MADRID, 25 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government of Sweden wants to know if in some sectors there have been price increases beyond what is justifiable due to the evolution of company costs, for which it has entrusted an investigation to the Institute of the Economic Situation (KI).

"The government commissions the KI to analyze how prices have increased in various industries in relation to costs," the Swedish Ministry of Finance announced, stressing that it must investigate in particular "whether prices have changed more than can be justified." due to the increase in company costs".

In this sense, the Ministry of Finance of the largest Scandinavian economy has highlighted that, although the price level in Sweden increased at a rapid pace during 2022, the labor costs of companies only increased moderately.

Likewise, it has indicated that, according to the monthly economic survey carried out by the KI, Swedish companies have so far reported that their profitability is good in relation to the average of the last 20 years.

In this way, it will be the KI itself that will determine for itself which sectors will be covered by the analysis with a view to presenting the conclusions of its investigation no later than December 5, 2022.

"It is very important that companies do not take advantage of this high inflation situation to increase their prices more than is justified," Swedish Finance Minister Mikael Damberg warned.

"There is a risk of further increasing inflation, which affects Swedish households, especially those that already have small margins. We will monitor this very closely," he added.

At its last meeting, held at the end of June, the executive board of the Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, decided to raise the reference interest rate used in its refinancing operations by 50 basis points, to 0.75%, accelerating the normalization strategy of the institution's monetary policy, which anticipated that the rate will be around 2% at the beginning of 2023.

In its analysis, the council of the oldest central bank in the world, since its origins date back to 1668, warned then that inflation has continued to rise rapidly and price increases are spreading throughout the economy.