- For the first time in many years, we will see a significantly worse purchasing power and this applies to everyone, says Arturo Arques, private economist at Swedbank and the savings banks, and continues:



- If you look back a little, households have lived in the best of both worlds with good income development, lower taxes and lower interest rates.

But 2022, may be the first time we see a significantly worse purchasing power.

Inflation is already high at 4.5 per cent (well above the Riksbank's target of keeping the rate of price change around 2 per cent) and many believe that inflation will rise further, partly due to the war in Ukraine.

Interest rate hikes may come this autumn

The National Institute of Economic Research, which issued a new forecast on Wednesday, believes that already high inflation will rise further to 5.2 per cent later this year and that the Riksbank will start raising the key interest rate this autumn.

Despite the government's financial support package, rising income and lower income tax, purchasing power has deteriorated between 2021 and 2022, for almost all households, according to Swedbank's calculations.

- For some groups, the financial support measures have been of great importance, but for most groups, these support measures are quite marginal, says Arturo Arques.

Retirees losers in the long run

However, if you look at the long-term development of purchasing power, pensioner couples and guarantee pensioners are losers, while the purchasing power of the other typical households has strengthened over the past 15 years.

Here is the development of purchasing power for different types of households since 2007, according to Swedbank's calculations:

Family with two children in a villa: + SEK 4,480

One-person household: + SEK 3,600

Unemployed: + 2,200

Single parent: + SEK 1,380

Pensioner couple: - SEK 160

Guaranteed pensioner: - SEK 400

The calculation of purchasing power allocation above shows how much is left after living costs calculated in fixed prices this year, compared with 2007.

See in the video above which households have been hit hardest in the past year.