Comments by the Governing Board

Due to the reports in the media of Lars Nyberg's comments at Öhman Fondkommission (securities brokerage company) this week, the Governing Board of the Riksbank discussed the principles for spreading monetary policy information at its meeting on Friday. At the meeting, Lars Nyberg gave an account of his speech at Öhman and the comments that were published. This discussion led to the Governing Board instructing the Chairman and Vice-Chairman to make the following statement:

 

"The Executive Board is in a new situation since this is the first year with a more open and autonomous Riksbank. This involves a risk that it will be somewhat more difficult to interpret the Riksbank. However, the benefits of openness outweigh the disadvantages", say the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Riksbank, Sven Hulterström and Vice-Chairman, Johan Gernandt in a joint statement.

 

The Governing Board also refers to the Executive Board's principles for signalling monetary policy , which remain unchanged. According to these principles, information shall be made available at the same time to all, usually in the form of the advance text of a speech, a press release or a press conference. New information is not to be provided in other contexts.