2020.08.0515:33:00UTC+00Swedish Economy Shrank At Record Pace In Q2

Sweden's economy contracted at a record pace in the second quarter of 2020, due to the impact to activity from the coronavirus, or Covid-19, pandemic, though the slump was not as severe as seen in the rest of Europe.

Gross domestic product decreased a record 8.6 percent from the first quarter, when the economy grew a modest 0.1 percent, preliminary figures from Statistics Sweden showed on Wednesday.

The latest decline was largely driven by falling exports and household consumption?expenditure, the statistical office said.

The decrease in GDP is the largest single quarter drop in the directly comparable time series starting 1980, Statistics Sweden added.

Compared to the same quarter last year, GDP fell 8.2 percent in the second quarter versus a 0.4 percent gain in the first three months of the year.

"The sharp contraction in the Swedish economy in Q2 confirms that it has not been immune to Covid, despite the government's well-documented light-touch lockdown," Capital Economics economist David Oxley said.

"Nonetheless, the economic crunch over the first half of the year was in a different league entirely to the horror shows in southern Europe."