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Confirmed: The Swedish people refuse to respond to the call of the Riksbank

– My advice is that you should fix the interest rate if you cannot afford that many interest rate increases. It’s insurance, Erik Theden told Dagens Nyheter earlier in the fall.

“Exceptionally many” does not sound

But at least this call doesn’t bother SBAB customers.

According to recently released figures, 89 per cent of the bank’s new customers chose variable interest rates in September.

Overall, this is a historically high percentage, although there has been some decline since the peak in May.

– Then 96% of them chose the variable interest. Since then, this percentage has decreased month by month and now stands at 89 percent. At the same time, from a historical perspective, there are still a large number of people who exceptionally choose variable interest rates, says Linda Hasselvik, a private and housing economist at SBAB, in a press release.

Don’t trust the Riksbank

The choice of interest rate is not the only aspect in which SBAB clients have no confidence in the Riksbank’s judgment.

When the Authority raised interest rates again in September, it was pointed out that this was not the last we would see next year.

– Interest rate expectations indicate that it may be raised further, the Riksbank confirmed in a press release at the time.

This analysis is shared by several major banks, which point to the summer of 2024 as the soonest things will change again.

I think the opposite

But a large portion of Swedish bank customers do not believe in this possibility.

– Almost all fourth mortgage holders believe that the interest rate will be cut earlier than the Riksbank indicates in its forecasts, says SBAB’s Linda Hasselvik.

According to the bank, this is one of the reasons why many oppose the fixed rate recommendation and opt for the variable equivalent instead.

But the question is how households interpret the Riksbank’s forecasts: as forecasts that should really be believed, or as a signal from the Riksbank that they will definitely not announce a future interest rate cut until they are really sure that they will do so. “Inflation has bitten my head off,” says Linda Hasselvik.

Government: “Households choose the wrong interest rate”

Recently, the government has expressed concern that such a large proportion of the Swedish population is choosing variable interest rates or not committing to them for a sufficiently long period of time.

“It particularly hurts those in worse or more uncertain financial circumstances,” Director General of the Norwegian Economic Institute Albin Kinilainen told SvD, who are now putting forward new proposals to get more people to choose fixed interest rates.

Read more: The government is concerned – and sees that families are making the wrong choice

Photo: J van der Schaaf

Text: Editors