MNI BRIEF: Skingsley: Riksbank Must Keep Control Of Toolkit

It is vital for the Riksbank to keep control of which monetary policy tools it can create and use, Riksbank Deputy Governor Cecilia Skingsley said Thursday, backing central bank independence and pushing back against proposals in a new Riksbank Act to subject them to control by lawmakers.

In a speech at an SEB event Skingsley said that in a single week following the March 2020 Covid shock the Riksbank decided on all the measures it now has in place, which have helped push corporate and government yields down and kept credit flowing. She said that having lawmakers "micro regulate which tools should be used ... will be very complicated and will encourage passivity and delay the monetary policy response in future crises."