EWD - Swedish consumer prices cool down first time since January but core inflation rising

Sweden's headline inflation for July has slowed for the first time since the beginning of 2022 thanks to a decline in electricity and fuel prices.

Specifically, the Riksbank's consumer price index with fixed interest rate soared 8% Y/Y in July vs. +8.2% expected and +8.5% in June, according to a report by Statistics Sweden released Friday.

On a monthly basis, the CPIF fell by 0.2% compared with +0.9% consensus and +1.2% prior. That decline was offset by higher prices on food, primarily vegetables, milk, cheese and eggs.

The slowdown in consumer prices appears to be encouraging, though when stripping out volatile food and energy prices, inflation surged to the highest level since December 1991 vs. the central bank's estimate of 5.8%. That could trigger the Riksbank to pursue larger interest-rate increases, said Therese Persson, an analyst at Danske Bank, wrote in a Twitter post .

The Swedish Krona is falling 1.6% against the U.S. dollar to 10.2064 as of shortly before 11:30 a.m. ET.

Related ETF: iShares MSCI Sweden Capped ETF ( NYSEARCA: EWD ).

At the Riksbank's June gathering, it concluded that more rate hikes may be necessary to dull inflationary pressures .

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