Statistics Sweden is currently publishing the activity indicator to provide early data on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the Swedish economy. This publication does not form part of the ordinary statistics production and is based on Statistics Sweden’s economic monthly statistics.

“Following four months of strong economic recovery, the last months of 2020 showed a clear slowdown in growth,” says Mattias Kain Wyatt, statistician at Statistics Sweden.

Economic activity indicator (seasonally adjusted volume growth and index level)

Activity in the economy was 2.7 percent lower in December 2020 than in December 2019. The month had two additional working days compared with the previous year. In non-calendar-adjusted figures, activity remained unchanged compared with December 2019.

Working day-adjusted growth for October and November has been revised to -2.1 percent and -3.2 percent respectively, from the previous -1.9 percent and -2.0 percent.

Statistics Sweden will publish the monthly activity indicator on the following dates:

Facts: The activity indicator

The activity indicator is designed to highlight the collected activities in the Swedish economy in a way similar to the description of growth in GDP. It describes how the Swedish economy has developed on a monthly basis, unlike the quarterly National Accounts. The indicator is based on a considerably smaller material than the GDP calculations and therefore is less reliable.
In order to report a single figure for economic activity, a balance of the calculations from the production and use sides is made. This means that one side is adjusted downwards and the other side is adjusted upwards. Before reconciliation, the statistical material showed that economic activities, measured from the use side, decreased by 1.4 percent, while the production side noted an increase of 1.3 percent compared with the corresponding month a year ago. This led to a reconciled non-adjusted change in activity of 0.0 percent.

Links

Time series for the activity indicator (Excel file)

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