Sweden's central bank has cut interest rates for the first time in fourteen months, reducing its repo rate by 25 basis points to 4.0pc The Riksbank - one of the few central banks to have actually raised rates this year - said there has been no improvement in international economic activity since its Inflation Report was published last month. The cut comes just a week after the US Federal Reserve voted to slash its lending rates by 50 basis points to 1.25pc. "New information indicates that industrial activity is still weak in both the US and Europe. Confidence indicators for households and companies show the same picture," it said in a statement today. The Riksbank was the first of the major central banks to hike interest rates this year in anticipation of an economic upturn, raising the repo rate by 25 basis points to 4.25pc in April. At the time it said that rate cuts in 2001 had "laid the foundation for a recovery". It also pointed to stronger than expected growth in the US in the early part of the year. The US expanded by 5pc in the first quarter of the year, but this slowed to 1.1pc in the second quarter, dragging global economic activity lower //www.fxcentre.com