21/12/2004 10:06:43 am
Continued Swedish Economic Decline. It has been said frequently by the Government in recent years that the Swedish economic decline has been stopped. Sweden has even been said to prove that a country can have high taxes and yet reasonable economic growth. It is true that if a country is very good in other fields than taxes, that may compensate somewhat. But the record shows that to be untrue as well. The latest statistics from Eurostat, on GDP per capita for the 25 countries of today?s EU, show that Swedish decline has continued in recent years. In 1995, the average Swede was 18 % wealthier than the EU-25 average, but in 2002 he or she was 15 % wealthier. The fact that we are clearly above the average at all is due to the ten new members being relatively poor. In contrast to the continued slight Swedish decline, one can look at Finland with an increase from 6 % above in 1995 to 13 % in 2002. Or Britain, with a rise from 10 % above to 18 %. Or Ireland, which was 1 % under the average in 1995 and was 33 % above in 2002! And the new EU countries have been growing strongly, as Estonia with a rise form 34 % of the average to 49 %. Actually, the degree of Swedish decline is only surpassed by Germany, France, Italy and Austria.
Read the statistics from Eurostat (pdf) here - >