Forecast for the Swedish economy

The Swedish economy, being dependent on exports, has been severely impacted by the sharp downturn in the global economy. It is estimated that Sweden's GDP will fall by 5.2 per cent during 2009, which is the weakest growth performance in a single year since the Second World War. In tandem with this, unemployment is expected to continue to rise, reaching 11.6 per cent in 2011 before starting to decline.

	Outcome 2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
GDP	-0.2 (1.0)	-4.2 (-0.8)	0.2 (1.5)	2.4 (3.0)	4.0 (3.8)
GDP (calendaradjusted)	-0.6 (0.7)	-4.0 (-0.7)	-0.1 (1.2)	2.5 (3.0)	4.4 (4.1)
Employment	1.2 (1.2)	-2.8 (-1.6)	-3.3 (-1.0)	-1.0 (0.6)	0.6 (1.6)
Hours Worked	1.6 (2.1)	-4.4 (-2.1)	-2.3 (-0.7)	-0.6 (0.5)	-0.2 (0.5)
Unemployment (age 15-74)	6.2 (6.2)	8.9 (7.8)	11.1 (8.6)	11.7 (8.3)	11.3 (8.3)
Wages	4.3 (4.1)	3.3 (3.7)	2.2 (3.0)	2.2 (3.3)	2.5 (3.3)
CPI	3.4 (3.5)	-0.4 (-0.2)	0.3 (0.7)	0.8 (2.1)	1.5 (2.1)