– Chill out, Riksbank Governor.
That is LO chairman Susanna Gideonsson’s greeting to Riksbank governor Erik Thedéen when she talks to Dagens industri.
In less than a year, the policy rate has gone from 0 to 3.0 percent and more increases are to be expected.
A monetary policy that Susanna Gideonsson thinks is “idiotic”.
– Do the economists at the Riksbank seriously believe that an interest rate increase will affect the economy in a few months? People can’t change that quickly.
Risking a recession
She believes that the Riksbank’s actions risk throwing Sweden into a recession.
– Instead of letting an increase work gradually, the Riksbank throws Sweden into a recession, completely unnecessarily.
Gideonsson says that the trade unions absolutely have a role to play in helping to bring down inflation and says that this is the reason why they have chosen not to centrally impose wage demands of 10 or 12 percent. The risk of a wage and price spiral is too great and, according to Gideonsson, it had affected the LO members the most.
At the same time, it is not only LO’s members who have to take responsibility, she says, referring to the business world’s record dividends and bonus rain recently.
– When it comes to keeping inflation down, only LO’s members are required to take responsibility. How much are employers prepared to lower people’s real wages?
