Sweden edition

Swedes back move to euro: survey

Published: 25 May 09 08:37 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/19632/20090525/

A majority of Swedes are in favour of adopting the euro as the country's currency, a new survey shows.

Sweden gets a seat at the eurozone table (31 Jan 12)
Sweden can back eurozone pact: Riksdag (27 Jan 12)
Social Democrats drop eurozone pact opposition (26 Jan 12)

The survey also indicates that voters supporting three of the parliamentary parties do not share their position for or against the euro.

47 percent of Swedes backed a move to the euro with 44 percent against in the survey by Novus on commission from the Liberal party and published in Dagens Nyheter on Monday.

Male voters are more in favour of changing the Swedish kronor for the European single currency with 50 percent in favour and 42 percent against. Among women voters the corresponding figures are 44-46 percent.

There is however a majority in favour of joining the euro across the age groups, although the strongest opposition is among young voters under 30-years-old.

Novus interviewed 1,000 Swedes between May 5th and May 12th and asked how they would vote if a referendum were to be held today.

The last time Sweden held a referendum on the issue, in 2003, those against claimed 56 percent of the vote while 42 percent were in favour of adopting the euro.

The Centre party was the only Alliance party against joining the euro in 2003 and their position remains the same. Their supporters have however become more positive, according to the poll, with a majority in favour.

The Christian Democrat party position is in favour of the euro but there remains a strong opposition among their supporters. The same is the case for the Social Democrats.

TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson (news@thelocal.se)

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12:41 May 25, 2009 by bjornnorgie

I am strongly against the adoption of euro for any of the scandinavian countries. because th Kronor is a historic curency, that we dont have to trow away. Sweden should remenber its root before making dicision on issues like this. If we improve our economy the kronor can be biger than euro, just like the British pounds, so i dont understand why changing our curency.

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13:01 May 25, 2009 by Random Guy

"just like the British pound"

What a joke. The SEK will never be that strong. Go euro!

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13:27 May 25, 2009 by NewinSweden

Sweden is not anymore as It used to be..

Every single thing in the economy sims going down..

Look at volvos case, Swedish Government could not afford to support the company and now thaks To Belgium there is hope for the company! and Saab? and the rest of the economy what?

Sweden.. when The hunger tights, the Proudness shrinks.

Come EURO.. Help Sweden! SEK is history..!!

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15:21 May 25, 2009 by Aminzada

I strongly support the Euro , and the government must come to Euro as quick as possible

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15:49 May 25, 2009 by Miss Kitten

The krona will never ever be bigger than the euro.

No one's denying that the krona is very much a part of Swedish history and culture, but sometimes it's necessary to make sacrifices in order to adapt to the changing times. After all, if the French - most of whom are fiercely proud of all things French and of being French - were willing to give up their precious francs then why shouldn't the Swedes be able to give up their kronor?

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16:21 May 25, 2009 by bira

If you truly want to be part of a United Europe and reap the benefits of the strength that brings, you MUST adopt the Euro.

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16:28 May 25, 2009 by Nutcracker

Several of the EU countries want out of the Euro because it's part of the economic problems Continent-wide; countries being tied to one currency means they can't take steps particularly relevant to their own individual nation's business needs to help their economy. The Euro is actually TOO strong at the moment which means, in real terms, that its goods are too expensive and that is bad for manufacturing, research and wages. I don't think the Euro will last out the worldwide economic downturn.

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17:18 May 25, 2009 by Mb 65

If Sweden goes over to the EURO you will have less money in the bank. I have friends who live in Spain and when they changed over all of the prices went up. When visiting other EU countries i always ask how they felt about the change over and the all say that it was terrible how the price of things went up. The Krona is low at the moment so if we went over now it would devalue your assets. People are saying that you won't have to change your currency when Traveling in to an EU country, how difficult is that. Just for a few weeks holiday each year.

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17:52 May 25, 2009 by Faunaman

As a Spaniard, I must say that Euro sucks, ever since it was introduced, prices rose amazingly (cafe from 0,60€ to 1€, newspaper from 0,75€ to 1,20 in barely 6 months). In fact, when I go to Sweden everything seems cheap to me compared to the prices in Spain. It has happened the same in Ireland, France and Germany to name a few.

The only good point is that nowadays the krona is so down that you can get things about 20% cheaper than 2 years ago. :)

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#10

19:36 May 25, 2009 by Gwrhyr

It's ridiculous for Sweden to join the Euro just to 'keep up with the times', which seems to be 50% of the argument for adopting it, the other 50% being "They're all doing it, so why aren't we?".

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#11

19:47 May 25, 2009 by Kibiri

Spain is waaay cheaper than Sweden, and things are fresher as well. I went to Barcelona once, and the local supermarket felt like heavens (especially fruits and seafood) compared to what is available in Coop/ICA/Hemköp. Together with the nice weather, made me seriously consider relocating.

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#12

20:05 May 25, 2009 by loddfafnir

Why does the topic of converting to the Euro always only come up when the SEK is weak and never when it's strong?

I don't have much money in the bank. But what I do have will be less when divided by 10 than it would be if divided by 6! The drawback may be that all the goods and services will likely also use the same conversion rate, making things more expensive as others have pointed out.

I'm not against converting. I would just prefer not now.

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#13

22:11 May 25, 2009 by bjornnorgie

All we need in sweden is to device means to boast our economy, not switching to the controvacial euro.

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#14

02:23 May 26, 2009 by Sebastian_R

If Sweden hat the Euro, I would spend more money in Sweden. The reason? First I know how much things cost. Not just "a bit" or "feelingwise" but really since I can compare to the whole of Europe.

Why does it make me spend more money? Because I see how well priced so many things are and I don't just have the 'Sweden = expensive' prejudice in my head so I spend it.

Secondly, I'm thinking of doing a bigger real-estate investment in Sweden. In a huge transaction like this, I very much appreciate if the exchange risk is eliminated. If I have the loan at home paying for my Swedish real-estate I have a constant risk of exchange gains/losses. That currently prevents me from investing in Sweden.

Now, I realize that the these arguments are not really relevant in a debate that is mainly emotional (like the Danes who love the little hearts on their coins so much that they were skeptic about the Euro) but for me these reasons are valid and I know people who think alike.

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#15

04:44 May 26, 2009 by liam030

It is absolute nonsense that prices go up. They may go up very slightly once the new currency is introduced, but will more than likely go back to their original level - since the prices anyway are based on supply/demand/competition etc. If prices go up, then inevitably people will start demanding wage increases. Nothing will change. You won't have any more or less money if Sweden changes over. You will have essentially the same amount.

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#16

15:51 May 26, 2009 by glamshek

Swedes already accept int'l trade in Euros. So, it does not make any difference whether you adopt it or not. This must not happen because Swedish economy will lose its individual importance as it will have to rally along with other economies even if it goes against their economy at some stage.

Individual currency is something that has a demand by the world and they will have to change it into SEK which has better monetary implications.

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#17

16:01 May 26, 2009 by Kieruk

What you seem to forget is that being in the Euro means that all the other countries will have to "rally along" with the Swedish economie when Sweden goes bad...as it is at the moment! Both the UK Pound and SEK have done really badly against the Euro in the last few months...something that would have been less noticable in the Euro.

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#18

16:24 May 26, 2009 by Peter H

Sweden should absolutely consider switching to the euro, hell Sweden should also rename the royal castle "Three Euros"

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#19

16:30 May 26, 2009 by Mzungu

Bring it on!

Love to have the Euro,save a great deal of bother....

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#20

18:34 May 26, 2009 by Weekend_warrior

Joining the Euro would provide a safety net to the Swedish economy and their currency would not be as volatile as it is right now. I have watched it move from 6sek to 10sek and back down to 7.6sek against the US dollar in the last 7 months. That is very volatile.

However I would wait to see if the Euro even survives this recession. Yes some countries are having issues, because they must abide by the ECB and this prohibits them from taking certain measures to stabilize their economy. This is mainly in regard to Spain and Ireland. Still with many problems still simmering, unemployment, western banks debt, as well as with the newer Easter European countries, I think Sweden should wait and see with regard to the Euro. Not that I think they'd be joining anytime in the next year anyway. Fact is, the EU as much as they'd like to be like the USA, they are not and never will be.

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#21

06:55 May 27, 2009 by Nutcracker

Weekend_warrior: The original EU member nations made a financially disastrous move when they let other European countries into the EU whose own economies did not comply with the EU's requirements for basic financial stability so that has been dragging the EU down. Also, it means that the EU is having to shoulder the HUGE debts from the new arrivals and the EU banks don't have the strict self-regulation and national bank that the US does so, they are, at the end of the day, on their own. Most of the economies in EU are under-performing and their unemployment figures are the proof. The EU has too many laws undermining businesses.

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#22

23:42 May 27, 2009 by Brucelee518

With bigger volume of economy, EURO is more stable and recognized currency than Kr. If someone talks about to keep Kronor only because it has a long history, what a joke! think about French franc and German Mark, did they have a longer history than Kr? not mentioning Euro is handling better against USD during this crisis.

Yes or not, is based on what will benefit or damage Sweden if we switch to Euro. To me it is very clear, a weak and fluctuate Kr will not help Sweden in its way pursuing long term stable economy growth. Euro zone is growing, USD and pound's future is gloomy, which way we should go, is very clear.

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#23

23:55 May 27, 2009 by Yendor

I said yes to the EURO a few years ago when the Swedish people voted on switching over, and they voted NO. What has happened since then that has changed their minds? Some people voted no on the euro because they were so worried that prices on food would go up a little, like my friend then he gos and buys a pack of cigs to smoke that cost about 45SEK and he is worried that the price of food will go up if Sweden gos over to the euro? He and so many others are just a BIG JOKE !

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#24

01:18 May 28, 2009 by Gwrhyr

Sweden would be wise to wait a bit longer, see where the Euro and the EU end up in ten years' time. People act like a fluctuating, small currency is a horrible handicap or something, when before Euro-times it was the norm in Europe, and still is the norm for the majority of the world. The benefits of the Euro are overrated, and I know from experience that prices rose in the Netherlands after the adoption of the Euro due to opportunism despite Dutch government measures to prevent that from happening. For countries that are not France and Germany the Euro is not all it's cracked up to be; the same goes for EU membership in general, as smaller European countries pay a lot into the EU without much influence in it. Someone said that the Eurozone would have to take Sweden's individual economic situation into account in policy decisions as well as all other Eurozone members, but that simply is not true, Eurozone policy is influenced far more by the situation in Germany and France than other European countries, and Europe is simply not yet integrated enough for all countries to benefit from adopting the Euro.

I'm not completely against adoption of the Euro, but Sweden is wise to have not jumped on the bandwagon from the beginning, and would be wise to wait a while longer before doing so, at least until the current financial crisis is over.

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#25

08:45 May 29, 2009 by ChrisPDX

The Swedes would be foolish to adopt the Euro.

I agree with Gwrhyr about the prices going up in the Netherlands after they joined the Euro.

Sweden is Sweden! Europe is some where down there.

Sweden may not be totally perfect in all areas, but it is one of the best countries that we humans have on this planet.

Sweden is right where it should be. This Euro thing sounds like utter propaganda by the media and government thugs.

If I know my Swedes, I would say that most are not in favor of the Euro, regardless what the polls say. Polls are skewed all the time.

If Sweden adopts the Euro, Sweden is over with as we now know it. Sad prospect.

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#26

17:04 June 3, 2009 by rumcajs

Netherlands? Also Spain, Italy and most of countries that took over the Euro had prices going up (not salaries). The problem here is that most of people (including me) don't know a thing about economy. In the other hand, UK has the highest currency in Europe, but the quality of life is far lower than in Sweden or Czech Republic. We don't know how connected the quality of life and the value of the currency are. Maybe not conected at all, maybe a lot, who knows. It's like asking my grandma to choose between 2 computers.

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#27

18:46 June 3, 2009 by Beef

Please explain yourself!?

Prices going up are due to opportunism, not the currency change per se.. I actually think the Swedish government would do a good job here to avert this. Finland, as a comparable nation saw very little price rises after the adoption of the Euro.

BTW the UK has a week pound and please back up your quality of life statement. .especially around the Czech Republic..

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#28

18:08 June 4, 2009 by ramazama

This , narrow minded dinosaur mentallity , oh , its part of our culture ballony , get a life , move on ,

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#29

00:51 June 10, 2009 by Muad'Dib

Well, I have read an article which says that the Swedes will not move forward before the Danes do and the Danes will not move forward before the Swedes do. :-)

BTW, we in Slovakia adopted € at the beginning of this year and so far we have had no problems whatsoever, the inflation is normal. We had also set up a "Price Council" and it has been mandatory to maintain dual pricing since August, last year, so people could check it in advance and get accustomed to it. (If the prices went up substantially, it would mean, in essence, that the market economy failed.)

Regarding the loss of "monetary sovereignity", I don't consider it such a bright idea that the national bank should determine how much funds people have in the common EU market.

In short: go for it, you have nothing to lose, perhaps except for some silly and unreasonable sentiment. The benefits by far outweigh the possible drawbacks, especially for smaller countries.

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