More interaction in the global economy: International cooperation

Swedens economy is affected by events in the global economy. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for Swedish participation in international economic and financial cooperation and prepares the ground for Sweden to take a position on a broad range of economic policy issues.

Multilateral financial institutions

The Ministry of Finance handles matters relating to a number of multilateral financial institutions, i.e. institutions in which several countries cooperate and are part-owners. These include, for example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Paris Club, the European Development Bank and the Nordic Investment Bank.

Due to the growth of global financial integration, the multilateral financial institutions have attracted increased attention in recent years. A significant part of their work has to do with the stability and efficiency of the international financial system. The institutions act mainly by providing loans and advice. They aim to strengthen the administrative capacity of recipient countries and put them in a better position to build up their economies.

The role of the Ministry of Finance working in tandem with other Swedish actors is largely to prepare Swedish positions on questions that are due for discussion by the executive bodies of these institutions. In general, Sweden is not one of the major owners of these organisations, but we often act jointly with other like-minded countries. Cooperation with the other Nordic countries is particularly well advanced.

EU work

The Ministry of Finance deals with EU cooperation on economic policy. To avoid unfavourable developments in the economic policies conducted by individual member states, with potential impacts in other EU countries, there are rules designed to ensure that all member states pursue responsible economic policies and maintain sound public finances. The most important instruments for coordinating policy are the broad economic policy guidelines, which encompass both macroeconomic and structural economic policy. One example is the Stability and Growth Pact, which sets out rules for public finances.

The Ministry of Finance also leads Swedens work in the domain of EU structural economic policy (product, capital and labour market reforms).The Lisbon strategy aims to make the EU the worlds most competitive economy, taking due account of social cohesion and environmental concerns, by 2010.The EUs employment strategy is an important factor for achieving the objective set in Lisbon. One of the EU targets is that the employment rate should reach 70 per cent by 2010. Once a year, the member states review one anothers progress in the area of structural reforms.

International economic monitoring and analysis The Ministry of Finance monitors and analyses international economic developments. Both because of Swedens increased dependence on international trends and on account of the more rapid pace of global economic events, the analysis of international developments has taken on growing importance for the Ministrys ability to forecast the Swedish economy. The Ministrys monitoring and analysis of external economic developments is also crucial in preparing Swedens participation in the multilateral supervision of economic policy, above all in the EU, the OECD and the IMF.

Economic and monetary union

The Ministry of Finance has overall responsibility for questions associated with the EUs monetary union (EMU).