|Area:||450,295 sq km (173,860 sq mi)|
|Population||(2008 est.): 9,214,000|
|Chief of state:||King Carl XVI Gustaf|
|Head of government:||Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt|
In 2008 Sweden began the year with a period of high and sustained economic growth but later experienced a marked slowdown in line with the global economic and financial downturn. The decline could be seen over the whole economy, with a sharply lower stock market, falling housing prices, diminishing pension funds, rising unemployment, and a weakening currency. In the period 2004–07 GDP on average had grown more than 3% annually—well above the European average—but Finance Minister Anders Borg cut the growth forecasts to a meagre 1% for 2008. Predictions pointed toward even lower future growth, with the central bank assuming zero growth for 2009.
The tougher times ahead could also be perceived in the rising number of Swedes who lost their jobs during the autumn. It came as a shock for the entire country when automobile manufacturer Volvo (a subsidiary of the American Ford group) in October notified 3,300 blue- and white-collar workers that their jobs were being eliminated. Unemployment in Sweden reached 6%, and forecasters such as the trade union confederation (LO) expected the figure to rise to 7–8% in the coming years.
The global financial crisis forced the Swedish government in October to present a rescue package for the banking system amounting to no less than 1.5 trillion kronor (about $200 billion). The package was designed to guarantee bank borrowing and to create a government fund to take direct stakes in the banks. Some of the banks, including Swedbank and SEB, were singled out as potential recipients of state aid because of their large exposure to loans in the Baltic states, where credit losses were expected to mount. All four major Swedish banks showed surprisingly good profits in their reports for the first nine months of 2008, however, and it was unclear how much—if any—public money would be spent in the end.
Housing prices fell 10–20% in 2008, depending on location and price, and further declines were widely expected. The Swedish stock market plunged some 40%, a historically high figure on top of the 7% slide in 2007. These developments made millions of Swedes feel the economic pain, as more than 50% of Swedish households owned their homes, and 75% of the population owned shares either directly or through mutual funds. Almost all pension schemes—state-sponsored and private—would also be affected by the financial downturn.
The centre-right coalition government under Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt continued to fall in the polls, receiving 15–20% less support than its political opposition—the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP), with its allies in the Green Party (MP) and the Left Party (VP). According to one poll published in the autumn, more than 60% of the electorate anticipated a new government in the next election, due in 2010. SAP leader Mona Sahlin declared a willingness to form a coalition government with the MP and to include the VP if they could agree on economic policies. This was the first time in more than 50 years that a social democratic leader had favoured the idea of a coalition government.
The government tried to rally its supporters, launching a public relations campaign that highlighted its legislative program and showing a desire to fortify the four-party coalition. The government pursued its reforms of the tax system, cutting both income and corporate taxes. Reinfeldt, who had been criticized for being too absent from the public forum, spent most of his time focusing on the domestic political arena. The government’s handling of the financial crisis won it public approval, and the gap in the polls narrowed to about 5% at the end of the year. Reinfeldt was expected to be more visible in European politics in the second half of 2009 after Sweden assumed the rotating presidency of the EU.