Sweden’s household consumption grows in April; but likely to slow soon

Sweden’s seasonally adjusted consumer consumption grew 0.4 percent on sequential basis and 2.4 percent on year-on-year basis in April. The April’s increase was a surprise since March's rise was considered an anomaly and was largely attributed to the early Easter.

Data received until now implies that the uptrend has continued in May as well. However, household consumption growth is likely to slow down later in 2016 on impact of deceleration in housing market, according to Nordea Bank.

Elsewhere, the data indicated that business sector production grew at a rapid pace in April. On a sequential basis, business sector production grew 1.1 percent. On a year-on-year basis, it grew 5.1 percent. Meanwhile, March’s year-on-year figure was revised upwards from 3.6 percent to 4.2 percent.

Overall, the consumer consumption data for April shows that the second quarter of 2016 had a decent start, said Nordea Bank in a research report.