The Swedish economy experienced a contraction, with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declining by 1.4 percent in June compared to the previous month, seasonally adjusted. The preliminary compilation of the GDP indicator reveals that during the second quarter, the GDP decreased by 1.5 percent compared to the previous quarter.
The GDP indicator provides an early glimpse into the development of the country’s Gross National Product, using a more limited and preliminary statistical foundation than the regular quarterly national accounts. The monthly outcomes of the indicator fall outside the official statistics and are classified as statistics under construction.
“Swedish economy weakened throughout the quarter and took a further downward step in June. Several underlying components contributed to this development, and one contributing factor in the last month of the quarter was a decline in goods exports,” said Mattias Kain Wyatt, an economist at SCB.
In June, the GDP was 3.6 percent lower than the corresponding month of the previous year, while the second quarter as a whole was 2.4 percent lower than the second quarter of 2022. June 2022 and June 2023 had the same number of working days, while the quarter as a whole had one fewer working day.
The calculation of the GDP indicator involves two separate GDP outcomes from the economy’s production and expenditure sides in the first step. Then, a reconciliation is made, where one side is adjusted downward, and the other is adjusted upward to present an unambiguous result. Before the reconciliation, the statistical basis in June indicated an actual GDP development from the expenditure side of -2.7 percent and a development from the production side of -4.5 percent, in annual terms. In line with regular reconciliation principles, this results in an adjusted actual GDP development of -3.6 percent.
For the quarter as a whole, the expenditure side was -1.9 percent before reconciliation, while the production side showed -4.0 percent, resulting in an adjusted actual GDP development of -2.9 percent.
As per the GDP indicator’s revision policy, months in the current quarter are revised, so now, April and May data have also been updated.