The Swedish moderate/centre/ right coalition government presents its autumn budget proposal today. The previously expected growth of 4.5% has been revised upwards to 4.8%. But a strong level of prudence is still included with GDP assumed to be 3.7% next year instead of 4.0%. Though the coalition government is only just in a minority the budget is expected to pass in parliament. The main focus is on unemployment and job creation with the objective to reduce unemployment from the current 8.4% to 8.0% next year.
Sweden sticks out in Europe with its relatively high export-led growth.
Free translation from SvT:
http://svt.se/2.22620/1.2188350/regeringen_andrar_prognos
Unemployment as a share of the workforce aged 15-74 years will be 8.4 % this year and fall to 8.0% next year. Unemployment will continue to fall gradually to 6.0% in 2014.
Consumer price index is expected to grow by 1.2 % this year and by 1.5 % next
year. “The government’s main goal is to bring Sweden back to full employment. We will therefore continue to work to strengthen employment and reduce exclusion, “said Finance Minister Anders Borg (M) according to a press release.
“But Sweden is still at a low activity level with high unemployment. And there are still risks that the development could be worse than expected. It is therefore important that we ensure that public finances are in surplus and that we prevent unemployment from remaining stuck at a high level. We must make use of the coming years of high growth to include those who have had difficulty to enter the labour market” said Finance Minister Anders Borg.
The k2p blog 