Sweden’s central bank on Monday brought forward its next policy board meeting by two weeks to Wednesday, fuelling expectations of a sizeable interest rate cut to try to dull the growing impact of the global downturn on its export based economy.

The Riksbank gave no reason for its decision, but it came in the wake of more grim economic news after manufacturing contracted in November at its fastest pace since calculations began in 1994. The sharp slowdown in the country’s core industrial base came days after the Sweden officially went into recession.