Sweden acts as guinea pig on interest rate cuts, moving before the Fed for the first time this century

Sweden has taken the bold move of cutting interest rates, surprising some analysts and marking a new phase in global monetary policy that could accelerate economic expansion or return countries including the U.S. to a more cautious approach. The Riksbank moved Thursday morning to slash its base interest rate from 4% to 3.75%, following other small European countries including Switzerland and Hungary in declaring the worst was over in the battle with inflation. Sweden’s preferred measure of inflation has fallen to 2.2%, close to the Riksbank’s target of 2%. On...