We don't have negative interest rates yet, but we will be there, all the talk of raising interest rates is a laughing matter, rates are staying at 0% and not moving anywhere, if they were going to raise them they would have done so by now, but the great thing is that everyone around the world is now doing QE, lets see, Japan is doing QE, Europe and as of just yesterday Sweden, this is getting better by the day, all these I guess they think all this stimulus is the way to fix failing economies but little do they know that its a failure from the beginning. Sweden Imposes Negative Interest Rate and Plans Bond-Buying Program By JACK EWINGFEB. 12, 2015 Photo The Swedish central bank's move is a way to prevent Sweden's exports, like Volvo cars, from becoming too expensive when paid for with foreign currencies. CreditInts Kalnins/Reuters FRANKFURT — The Swedish central bank on Thursday put its benchmark interest rate in negative territory and announced a bond-buying program in bold moves to protect its economy from mounting economic and political uncertainty in Europe. It was the latest example of how central bankers are being pushed to their limits in efforts to stoke growth as the threat of deflation has replaced inflation as their main worry. The Swedish benchmark interest rate was cut to minus 0.1 percent, and the central bank said it would begin buying Swedish government bonds, emulating the program used by the Federal Reserve in the United States, the Bank of England and soon the European Central Bank to pump money into the economy and increase inflation. Sweden is a member of the European Union, but it is not in the eurozone. Its economy is vulnerable to spillovers from its neighbors, forcing the central bank to react aggressively to avoid deflationary forces emanating from the rest of the Continent. Negative interest rates were almost unknown until recently. But as inflation has fallen, they have increasingly become a feature of monetary policy in countries including Denmark and Switzerland, in the government bond market and even in a few corporate bonds. Central bank negative rates are intended to encourage companies and individuals to borrow more, increasing investment and consumer spending and driving up inflation. As recently as October, the Swedish central bank, or Riksbank, said it preferred to avoid a negative rate. But Stefan Ingves, governor of the Riksbank, said the precedents set by Denmark and Switzerland in recent months had reassured the bank’s policy committee that there would be no dire consequences. “We felt that going negative to minus 0.1 was not a major issue,” Mr. Ingves said in a telephone interview. The decision means that Swedish commercial banks will be able to take out loans from the central bank at a negative interest rate. When the loans are due, banks will pay back less than they borrowed. For Sweden, as well as for Denmark and Switzerland, negative rates also help contain increases in their currencies that have been caused in part by actions of the European Central Bank. The bond purchases, initially valued at 10 billion Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 billion, are tiny compared with those of other central banks. But Mr. Ingves said the point was to send a message that the Riksbank was prepared to act. “We can easily scale these things if need be,” he said. “We can technically easily do much, much more than the 10 billion.” Next month, the European Central Bank plans to begin buying 60 billion euros a month of eurozone government bonds and other debt. The action is expected to push market interest rates in the eurozone down from already low levels and has prompted investors to move their money to countries like Sweden in search of better returns. Mr. Ingves said it was too early to tell what effect the European Central Bank bond purchases would have on Sweden. He acknowledged, though, that Sweden was largely at the mercy of European Central Bank policies and other forces beyond its control. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story “It’s like sailing in a small boat on a big ocean,” he said. “That’s reality when you come from a midsize fairly open economy.” The flow of money to noneurozone countries like Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland has also been prompted by global political and economic turmoil, and the desire by investors to find a haven, even if they have to pay to keep their money there. In a statement on Thursday, the Riksbank cited uncertainty caused by Greece as one reason for its decision. The Riksbank is also concerned about conflict in Ukraine, Mr. Ingves said. But if one currency goes down, another must go up, and economists say that actions by central banks to devalue their own coin is ultimately a zero-sum game. “These essentially ‘beggar thy neighbor’ policies are not helping solve the overall problem of deficient global demand,” Janet Henry, chief European economist at HSBC, and Daragh Maher, the bank’s senior foreign exchange strategist, said in a note to clients. A version of this article appears in print on February 13, 2015, on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Sweden Imposes Negative Interest Rate and Plans Bond-Buying Program. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe NEXT IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS