“The downturn in the economy now looks as if it will be even worse than was thought in December. Exports and export orders have fallen dramatically and the number of redundancy notices remains high. The weaker economic activity has also led to the oil price falling further since December, which contributes to a lower inflation rate”, the Swedish Central Bank informs in a press release.
The Central Bank now believes that a recovery will start at earliest in 2010.
The Swedish GDB is now expected to shrink 1,6 percent in 2009 and then grow 1,7 percent in 2010 and later 3,2 percent in 2011, newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports.
Also in the Swedish North, the situation now looks increasingly gloomy. The number of laid-off people in the northern region of Västerbotten in 2008 amounted to 3130, which is the largest number since 1993. In January 2009 another 1050 people were alerted that their jobs will disappear. The crisis in the region has so far hit primarily the wood processing industry as well as the mechanic industries. Now however, there are signs that also other sectors are facing difficulties, the Västerbotten regional administration informs in a press release.
