Swedish production growth slows down in November, likely to grow modestly in coming months

Swedish production growth decelerated in November, coming in below expectations. Production in the total business sector was unchanged on the month. The year-on-year figure fell to 2.2 percent in November from October’s 4.5 percent year-on-year.

The sharp fall for the year-on-year figure is because of base effects as well as soft momentum in November 2018. The trend for the total business sector production has been solid in the autumn and one of few bright spots recently, implying that GDP growth has not been too bad in the second half of 2018, said Nordea Bank in a research report. Nevertheless, indicators imply that production growth will be modest going forward.

“Thus, the November reading is probably the start of a slowdown also for production data, underlining the subdued outlook for GDP growth”, added Nordea Bank.