Central banks look at 2013 with caution, alarm
Central banks are ending the year by loosening monetary policy further to try and foster a durable recovery in 2013, denoting a measure of alarm about the health of the world economy.
Sweden, Turkey and Hungary all cut interest rates on Tuesday, united by the theme of the damage inflicted on their economies by euro zone economic weakness.
The success of U.S. budget talks and the twists and turns of the euro zone debt crisis will go a long way to dictating the pace of recovery, while China is likely to stick with its 2012 growth target of 7.5 percent when it charts a course for 2013.
But even if all that plays out without setbacks, policymakers in much of the world expect only a slow grind back with many pitfalls on that path.
Sweden's central bank cut its main interest rate by a quarter point to 1.0 percent -- its lowest level for more than two years -- and said it would expected to hold it around that level for the next year.
"The weak developments in the euro area are having a clear effect on the Swedish economy," the Riksbank said in a statement.
Turkey cut its main policy rate for the first time in more than a year as falling inflation gave it room to step up its fight against a sharper-than-expected slowdown, after it was the fastest-growing economy in Europe last year.
Hungary's central bank dropped interest rates to a two-year low of 5.75 percent, delivering its fifth quarter-point cut in as many
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