Business and consumer optimism fuels economic growth
Business and consumer confidence improved during the autumn both in Sweden and in the US and the euro area. This will help the Swedish economy to strengthen further and unemployment to fall in 2017 and 2018. Persistently weak economic conditions in Europe will, however, contribute to relatively slow wage growth and to inflation in Sweden not hitting 2 per cent until 2020. The Riksbank will not therefore begin to raise the repo rate until the third quarter of 2018. Such are the results of the latest forecast from the National Institute of Economic Research (NIER), published today.Economic