Swedish production in business sector falls sequentially in June

Swedish production in the business sector eased in June, affirming sluggish growth in the economy. Sequentially, business sector production dropped 0.2 percent in June. On a year-on-year basis, production rose just 0.8 percent. The data for previous months were downwardly revised. The outcome was slightly softer than expected.

Indicators imply that growth in the business sector might stay subdued, although not pitch-black. Construction fell sharply and is now more in line with indicators, after being surprisingly high earlier in 2019. The trend for manufacturing industry is sideways and service sector production has stagnated. The order intake in the manufacturing industry picked up, reducing some downside risks for the growth outlook.

“All in all, GDP for Q2 has already been published and the figures for June should to a large extent be included in the GDP reading. The outlook is bleak and simply not an environment for rate hikes” said Nordea Bank.