The minutes of the latest Riksbank monetary policy meeting, released this week, were taken as a sign of the bank's determination to raise rates well into 2012 but this resolve could be weakened at year end as two of the hawks on the six-member board retire.

Comments in Monday's minutes from the departing deputy governors--Svante Oberg and Lars Nyberg--were key to an assessment that reining in rising inflation is the priority for the majority of the Riksbank board even though the euro-zone's problems remain a concern.

Oberg said he "still believed that the repo rate will be raised at all three meetings in the autumn." This implies faster rate rises than the Riksbank's board as a whole advocates.

Such comments have made Oberg by some distance the board member most in favor of raising rates and his departure in particular is likely to strengthen the position of the minority on the board--made up of Katarina Ekholm and Lars Svensson.

These two have persistently argued against Oberg and Nyberg--as well as Governor Stefan Ingves and Deputy Governor Barbro Wickman-Parak--as they have pushed through rate rises at the last seven policy meetings.

Oberg and Nyberg's impending exit could help explain why current market pricing implies a belief that the Riksbank's own forecast for a rate of 2.9% in the third quarter of 2012 is too high.

Especially as Riksbank Governing Council Chairman Johann Gernandt, who is leading the hunt for the new board members, said that he isn't looking to replace like with like--in terms of monetary policy views--when Oberg moves on.

Oberg's successor "will not necessarily be like Oberg because he has made some statements which are very strong favoring a quicker raising of interest rates," Gernandt told Dow Jones Newswires.

SEB bank strategist Richard Falkenhall said the departure of Oberg is "a bit like when Andrew Sentance left the Bank of England: suddenly you saw a different voting outcome."

However, Falkenhall said he still "trusts the Riksbank" and, even after Oberg and Nyberg are gone, rising inflation and a tightening labor market mean the central bank will deliver rate rises as planned.

"Remember the Riksbank hiked rates in September 2008--it takes a lot to change their mind," he said.

Riksbank Web site: http://www.riksbank.com