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INTERESTRATES

Rise predicted Sweden’s interest rates

Sweden's GDP is expected to rise by 4.5 percent this year, according to Swedish bank SEB's growth report. GDP will rise by 3.5 percent next year and 2.4 percent in 2008.

Published: 21 November 2006 11:48 CET

Unemployment, which will be 5.4 percent this year, will fall to 5.2 percent next year and 4.5 percent in 2008.

Inflation, measured to exclude changes in mortgage payment and the changes in the net amount of altered indirect taxes and subsidies, will be 1.2 percent this year, 1.1 percent next year and 1.5 percent in 2008, SEB predicts.

The bank expects that the Riksbank will raise interest rates. By December this year they will be 3 percent and in one year they will stand at 4 percent, where they will remain for at least one year.

The bank expects the krona to strengthen against the euro, with a value of 9 kronor in December this year, 8.90 in December next year and 8.80 one year later.

ECONOMY

Swedish job losses set to soar in 2009

The global financial crisis is set to have "substantial effects" on the real economy in Sweden over the next two years, a new report has predicted, with large numbers of people expected to lose their jobs.

Published: 19 December 2008 10:45 CET
Swedish job losses set to soar in 2009

The state-run National Institute for Economic Research (Konjunkturinstitutet – KI) said on Friday that Sweden’s GDP would fall by 0.9 percent in 2009 and grow 1.9 percent in 2010. Unemployment is expected to increase from 6.1 percent this year to 7.9 percent in 2009 and 9 percent in 2010.

Some 135,000 jobs will be lost over the next two years, KI predicts.

“The number of layoff notices has increased dramatically, at the same time, newly reported job openings have continued to decrease, and firms have cut back on their hiring plans,” the report notes.

Retail prices are expected to fall 0.2 percent next year and 0.4 percent in 2010. Interest rates will keep falling, KI predicts, but Sweden will not experience a repo rate of zero percent as in the US. The report predicts that the Riksbank will reduce rates to 1 percent by the end of next year. This rate will likely be maintained until the end of 2010.

The institute expects the government to introduce further expansionary measures to fight the downturn. Government finances are currently strong, KI says, but predicts that the government will push through new unfinanced spending increases as tax revenues fall.

Spending increases and falls in revenue will cost 7 billion kronor ($911 million) in 2009 and a further 50 billion kronor ($6.5 billion) in 2010.

“It will therefore be necessary to strengthen cyclically adjusted net lending in the years immediately following 2010 if Sweden is not to keep falling short of the surplus target,” the institute wrote in its report.