Economic growth has turned out to be stronger than the Swedish government expected in April and growth forecasts will be revised in the 2005 budget due in September, Finance Minister Bosse Ringholm said on Tuesday.
The government's spring budget unveiled in April foresaw gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.5 percent in 2004 and 2.6 percent next year.
"They will be revised, by how much and to what extent we don't know," Ringholm told reporters while attending a traditional week of politics on the Baltic Sea island Gotland.
"Our economic assessment was positive in April and the business cycle will improve in the autumn, and what has happened since then (April) is that this development has strengthened," Ringholm said.
Sweden was "definitely" experiencing an economic upturn at present, said the finance minister known for his cautious public remarks on macro-economic trends. He said it might be until winter before demand for labour increased. The main economic policy objective of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats, who face the next general election in September 2006, is more jobs and lower unemployment.
European Union member but euro zone outsider Sweden's independent central bank recently revised up its growth forecasts to 2.9 percent in 2004 and 2.8 percent in 2005. The National Institute for Economic Research, which prepares macro-economic assumptions for the government budget, said in June that the economy was recovering more vigorously than expected and that GDP growth would be 2.9 percent this year, 2.7 percent in 2005 and 2.8 percent in 2006.
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