Time to invest in Sweden? Yesterday, Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson raised the economic growth forecast for 2016 and predicted narrowing deficits in the coming years as an economic boom helps the nation cope with a record influx of asylum seekers.
Gross domestic product will expand 3.8 percent in 2016 and 2.2 percent in 2017, compared with December forecasts of 3.1 percent and 2.6 percent respectively, the Stockholm-based Finance Ministry said in a statement. It now predicts budget deficits of 0.4 percent of GDP in 2016 and 0.7 percent in 2017, compared with earlier forecasts of 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent.
The growth forecast is one percent higher than the forecast presented in connection with the 2016 budget last fall. Growth is now higher than in the United States, Germany and Great Britain. Unemployment is at its lowest level in seven years and Sweden gains market shares on international export markets.
The finance minister expressed worries that despite the good outlook there are some risks associated with the present state of the economy in the close trading partners Finland and Norway.
