Riksbank publishes own macro indicators on the website

Date 27/05/2011

On Wednesday 8 June the Riksbank will begin publishing macro indicators on our external website. Macro indicators is a generic term for variables that describe the current situation in the economy or the immediate future. The Riksbank uses a number of different macro indicators to analyse developments in the Swedish economy.

The indicators that will be published include two measures of underlying inflation, an indicator of resource utilisation (the RU indicator) and estimates of final wage outcomes. Underlying inflation measures the more persistent inflation rate or inflation trend, as the effects of prices that fluctuate a lot are given little significance in these measures. The macro indicators will be published under a new main heading on the Riksbank's website, "Statistics".

Most of the macro indicators used by the Riksbank are published by others, such as Statistics Sweden, the National Institute of Economic Research, Prospera, OMX and Eurostat. Some indicators are calculated and processed by the Riksbank, such as those now to be published on our website. These indicators have been used for some time in the Riksbank’s regular analysis of the Swedish economy and they are published in the Monetary Policy Report or used in the material on which the monetary policy decisions are based. We therefore consider it important to make them available.

The macro indicators will be published and updated regularly in connection with new outcomes for the included data. This means that inflation measures and wage estimates will be published once a month, and resource utilisation indicators will be published once a quarter.