Sweden's GDP increased by 1.1 percent in August, seasonally adjusted and compared to the previous month, according to new figures from Statistics Sweden (SCB).
The increase was surprisingly high. Economists had, according to Bloomberg's compilation, expected an unchanged GDP figure.
This suggests that the recovery that has been going on for a while will continue and could gain a bit more momentum faster than expected, says Danske Bank's chief economist Susanne Spector.
The Swedes' weak consumption has for a time disappointed economists' forecasts for the future. Have we started consuming now?
Yes, according to today's figures, we have.
A single monthly figure should be taken with a pinch of salt, and there are still other figures that are weak, such as new job vacancies, reminds Spector.
But now the door is definitely closed for further interest rate cuts from the Swedish Central Bank, unless something very special happens, according to her.
Rather the opposite:
With today's figures, if you had had these figures with you, it's not certain that the interest rate would have been cut in September, says Spector.
The calendar-adjusted GDP figure was at the same time 2.4 percent higher than the corresponding month the previous year.
"The Swedish economy grew broadly in August with increases in both household consumption and business production", says Melker Pettersson Loberg, national economist at SCB in a press release.
