- Sweden’s Economy Slows as Investments Stall in Third Quarter
Swedish growth slowed in the third quarter as an expansion in the Nordic region’s largest economy continues to abate from last year’s output peak.
Gross domestic product rose 0.5 percent from the previous quarter and an annual 2.8 percent, Statistics Sweden said Tuesday. Analysts had estimated growth of 0.5 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively. The krona slid 0.1 percent to 9.77 per euro as of 10:13 a.m. in Stockholm.
The economy boomed last year, when a record wave of refugees streaming into Sweden helped stoke spending. The country’s central bank has also unleashed an ultra expansionary monetary policy, cutting interest rates far below zero and pumping money into the economy through bond purchases in order to lift inflation toward its 2 percent target.
“The picture continues to be that Sweden is in an economic boom, but that growth is slowing down,” Nordea analyst Andreas Wallstrom said by phone. “Private consumption, public consumption and investments surprised us on the downside, so the data was marginally weaker than we’d imagined.”
Exports rose 1.3 percent in the quarter, consumer spending rose 0.4 percent and investments were flat.
The central bank expects economic growth to slow to 3.3 percent this year, from 4.1 percent in 2015, and to reach what it calls more “normal” growth levels of about 2 percent in 2017.
According to Cathrin Danin, an analyst at Swedbank AB in Stockholm, Swedish growth is slower, but still “decent” when compared to other countries.