Sweden’s Economic Scorecard
Sweden has divided opinion by going it alone on coronavirus. It’s kept schools and most businesses going, citing a reputation for disease-resilience among the populace. The Swedes are not obese, and according to those on the ground, not afraid of what herd immunity entails.
We wrote about this in April, and we earmarked the SEK/EUR currency pair as an instrument that would post scorecard performance for how effective Europe’s broad lockdowns have been relative to the Swedish government’s open-for-business approach, strictly from an economic perspective.
The Forex market was waiting for countries to reveal the changes to their gross domestic product (GDP). The predicted declines were 8% for euroland, and just 6% for Sweden. We found out yesterday that the actual declines were around 12% for euroland, and 8% for Sweden.
The virus moved the goal posts for all investors and the Swedish Krona dug its heels in compared with other countries, but what is clear is that pandemic outbreaks cause economic damage no matter what, as all countries export to other countries.
The most popular Swedish stocks are Skandinaviska Enskilda, a bank, and Spotify, which needs no introduction. The freemium music and podcast streaming service has doubled in value since March and is ripping higher with 97% bullish support from the Invstr community!
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.