EN: Swiss Praise for Sweden, my Country!

The newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) has published a feature story with the headline "Sweden - model pupil without red pencil", where my homeland is being praised with so strong words that they could come from one of Finance Minister Anders Borg’s sweetest dreams.

The article lists the strong track record of the Swedish centre-right government during the still on-going European financial crisis: on the one hand, a repeated surplus in the public finances, on the other hand, an economy which during 2007-12 has grown by an average 1% per year, while, during the same period, the EU as a whole has seen an annual decline of -0.25 %.

According to the article, the background for Sweden's stable situation lies in the structural changes which were made after 1992, when the country had found itself in a deep domestic financial crisis. The recipe for success is based on four main components: fiscal discipline, reform packages, transparency and growth. However, the article writer does not forget to stress that, at the same time, the export industry received a boost when, also in 1992, the Swedish krona lost 20 % of its value.

That a similar weakening of the currency rate helped Sweden in the beginning of the current crisis – approximately from September 2008 to March 2010 - is not mentioned in the text.

Personally, I like the Euro just as I like the Swedish government, but I admit that, so far, my country has benefitted from sitting on the fence, calmly counting its krona.

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Here is a post about the Swedish financial crisis in 1992, published on my old blog.

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Deutsche Version
Svensk version