Market operations

One of the Riksbank's main tasks is to conduct monetary policy. The objective of monetary policy in Sweden is to achieve price stability. More specifically inflation is to be maintained at 2 per cent plus/minus 1 percentage point.

The Riksbank's primary instrument of monetary policy is the repo rate. This is changed with the aim of influencing other interest rates in the economy and thereby economic activity and inflation.

Monetary policy is implemented in practice through open market operations in the money and FX markets. The Riksbank deals primarily with those counterparties that have signed an agreement with the Bank. In order to become a counterparty certain requirements must be met.

The Riksbank's management of interest rates – monetary policy in practise

The objective of the Riksbank's monetary policy is price stability. In order to meet this objective, the Riksbank steers the market's shortest interest rate – the overnight rate. How the Riksbank steers this interest rate is described in the publication "The Riksbank's management of interest rates – monetary policy in practice". The method used by the Riksbank to manage interest rates is relatively simple and is also very similar to that applied by other central banks. The essence of the Riksbank's interest rate management is the Riksbank's ability to determine the terms and conditions for the banks' loans and deposits through their accounts in the payment system, RIX.

The banks’ bank

The RIX system, the Riksbank’s system for the settlement of payments, can said to be the hub of the Swedish payment system in that all payments between banks and other agents eventually pass through RIX. The Riksbank thus functions as the banks’ bank in the settlement of payments in Swedish kronor.