(Bloomberg) -- Concerns over unexpectedly high food prices in Sweden have pulled Riksbank policymakers into a public feud with the largest lobby group for the sector.
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The Swedish Food Federation lashed out at Deputy Governor Per Jansson in comments to the Svenska Dagbladet daily on Friday for making what it said were unfounded claims regarding aggressive pricing. The Nordic nation’s food producers have largely on their own absorbed the extreme cost increases of recent years, resulting in losses in 2022 and 2023, according to Carl Eckerdal, chief economist at the group.
The spat harks back to the Riksbank’s concerns in 2023 that grocers are jacking up prices despite easing input costs, with the government that year also increasing its scrutiny of food retailers after data showed that food costs rose at the fastest pace since the early 1950s.
Given that inflation has been brought under control, the timing is also delicate as the world’s oldest central bank has turned its gaze on the Swedish economy that’s stagnated for three years. Some board members have even expressed concerns inflation might cement itself at too-low levels.
In the minutes of the Riksbank’s December meeting, published Thursday, several policymakers pointed to food price gains as a key reason behind core inflation exceeding their estimates in the last couple of months.
Jansson, who highlighted the risk of food price hikes on the rate outlook already at the November meeting, said the executive board must “be vigilant that companies do not start to change their pricing behaviour again in a more aggressive direction.”
“The fact that representatives of food companies show no understanding whatsoever that such a change in behaviour would be problematic does not, of course, make one feel any less worried,” he said, according to minutes.
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