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Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 8.6% in the last quarter of the year, according to a rapid estimate of the country’s statistics on Wednesday, recording its biggest quarterly drop in fashion history.
The record fall, much in line with consensus, was much worse than in the fourth quarter of 2008, when the Nordic country fell by 3.8% in the wake of the global currency crisis.
However, the Swedish economy has consistently surpassed many of its opposing European numbers in the 3 months to the end of June. This follows the government’s resolve not to impose a large-scale blockade to stop the spread of coronavirus.
David Oxley, a senior European economist at Capital Economics, told CNBC by email that Sweden’s strong GDP contraction “confirms that he has not been immune to Covid, despite the government’s well-documented blockade.”
“However, the economic crisis in the first part of the year was completely different from the terror demonstrations in southern Europe,” he added.
The euro dominance economy has risen from 12.1% in this quarter compared to the previous quarter and 11.9% in the European Union as a whole. The Spanish economy recorded the largest decline among Member States compared to the previous quarter, with a minimum of 18.5%.
It was followed by Portugal (-14.1%) France (-13.8%), respectively, during the same period. Germany, described as Europe’s expansion engine, recorded a 10.1% drop compared to the first 3 months of the year.
Robert Bergqvist, a leading economist at SEB Bank, told CNBC via email that given Sweden’s strength in the first quarter, Sweden’s GDP in the first part of the year fell “only about a portion of the euro area’s GDP.”
“The expansion of the eurozone appears to recover more strongly in the third quarter, however, we expect the Swedish economy to continue to outperform the eurozone in the future,” he added.
Sweden’s GDP grew by 0.1% in the first quarter, after adjusting seasonal diversifications and until the last 3 months of 2019. Medium forecasters in a Reuters survey of economists expected a 0.6 percent quarterly contraction.
Unlike many European countries, Sweden has maintained the maximum schools, especially for young children, and many corporations opened up in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The lack of large-scale blockade coincided with the fact that the country has more Covid-19 infections and related deaths than all its Nordic neighbours combined: Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
To date, Sweden has reported 81181 cases of coronavirus, with 5,747 deaths, according to knowledge compiled through Johns Hopkins University.
Deaths in nursing homes are reportedly accounting for almost part of all coronavirus-related deaths in Sweden in the first part of the year.
On Wednesday, knowledge published through Our World in Data showed that Sweden had recorded 0.64 deaths consisting of millions consistent with the day on a moving average over the more than seven days. Earlier this year, the country soon had the highest capita mortality rate in any country in the world, reporting 5.5 deaths consistent with millions consistent with the day of May 29.
Brazil, which has the largest coronavirus outbreak of the moment in the world, has lately the highest mortality rate consistent with the capita, with a moving average of 4.74 deaths consistent with millions consistent with the day.
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