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The
Riksbank has already slashed rates to -0.5 percent, and is on
track to buy 40 percent of the stock of outstanding government
bonds by year end. But inflation remains subdued and the central
bank said it would take longer to hit its target than previously
expected.
The crown initially rose after the announcement, as traders
reacted to interest rates being left unchanged and the central
bank's saying it saw the repo rate averaging -0.5 percent in the
fourth quarter, slightly above a prior forecast of -0.52
percent.
But it then fell sharply, losing 0.8 percent on the day to trade
at 9.8000 crowns per euro <EURNOK=D4>, its weakest since May
2010. Against the dollar, it fell 0.6 percent to hit a
7-1/2-year low <SEK=>.
"The tone of the statement was rather dovish," said ING currency
strategist Petr Krpata, in London. "Although no QE extension was
announced today, the statement sent a strong hint ... at more."
The dollar traded close to a three-month high against the yen,
underpinned by higher U.S. bond yields and growing expectations
that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by the
end of the year.
The market is now pricing in a 78 percent chance that the Fed
will raise rates at its December meeting, according to CME
Group's FedWatch tool, following a series of hawkish comments
from Fed policymakers.
Those expectations have driven the dollar to nine-month highs
against a basket of currencies <.DXY> this week. Higher 10-year
U.S. Treasury yields <US10YT=RR>, which rose to 1.813 percent in
Asian trade, their highest since this month's five-month peak of
1.814 percent, have also supported the dollar.
"We're seeing a renewed pick-up in Fed rate hike expectations,
which will likely intensify going into the November Fed meeting
next week," Credit Agricole's head of G10 currency research,
Valentin Marinov, said.
"We will be looking for an explicit indication in the statement
that rates will be going higher in December."
Marinov said that the dollar was also being supported by a
pick-up in corporate demand for dollar funding into the end of
the year.
Against the yen, the greenback rose 0.2 percent to 104.65 <JPY=>,
just off its high of 104.875 touched on Tuesday.
Norway's crown rose around half a percent after the central bank
left interest rates unchanged and signaled that they would
remain at their current levels in the period ahead. Against its
Swedish counterpart, it climbed 1.5 percent to a its strongest
since June 2015 <NOKSEK=>.
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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