By Charles Duxbury 

Sweden's central bank cut its main interest rate even further below zero on Thursday as it sought to hold down the national currency to support a recovery in the inflation rate toward a 2% target.

The bank, known as Sweden's Riksbank, lowered its main repurchase rate to minus 0.5% from minus 0.35% and said it still had scope to drop it further if needed.

Markets judged the move as more aggressive than expected and the Swedish krona weakened against the euro, which rose to 9.59 kronor from 9.47 kronor.

A rate cut was expected by six of 11 analysts in a Wall Street Journal survey with five forecasting an unchanged rate. Only two of the 11 expected a cut of this size with four expecting a smaller cut.

Write to Charles Duxbury at charles.duxbury@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 11, 2016 04:06 ET (09:06 GMT)