STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s gross domestic product grew 0.2% in the fourth quarter from the previous three-month period, a flash estimate from the statistics office showed on Wednesday.
In the month of December alone, the economy grew 0.7%.
Against the same period a year earlier, the economy expanded 1.1% during the last three months of the year.
Analysts had forecast growth of 0.3% quarter on quarter and 1.1% compared to the same period in 2023.
The economy grew 0.6% in 2024, according to the flash estimate, after shrinking 0.2% in the full year 2023.
Sweden’s economy has stuttered for the last couple of years as households and businesses have struggled to adjust to higher interest rates aimed at taming a surge in inflation, which topped 10% in late 2022.
Rates have come down again, but the full effects have yet to feed through to the economy.
The central bank is widely expected to announce a quarter percentage point cut in the policy rate later on Wednesday as it looks to spur growth.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson, editing by Terje Solsvik and Anna Ringstrom)
