The Swedish economy gathered momentum during the second half of 1997, but is expected to slow down during he course of this year, as a consequence of the international economic development. Last year, private consumption rose, and is expected to continue to contribute stronger to GDP than exports, for which growth is forecasted to slow.
The low inflation rate is expected to continue. The long-term interest rate has during the last couple of years converged towards the German level &endash; the spread is now less than a half percentage point. The budget deficit has been reduced considerably, and the current account is running at a surplus.
Key indicators, percentage change
|
|
1997 |
1998 (estimate) |
|
GDP Consumer prices Total unemployment Exports Private consumption Industry investments Current account balance, in % of GDP |
1.5 0.9 12.4 10.7 2.3 - 4.7 2.8 |
1.9 1.4 12.1 5.2 2.0 2.5 3.3 |
The Swedish production of paper and board increased by 700 000 tons in 1997, after two years of decline. The capacity utilization increased to 93 percent. Exports increased by 600 000 tons or eight percent. Deliveries to the EU-countries increased by close to eight percent and reached 6.2 million tons. Deliveries to eastern European countries increased strongly but are still at low levels. Exports to Asia decreased marginally, with great differencies between the individual countries. Deliveries to the home market increased by 3 percent. For further details see the statistics attached.
The Swedish exports of pulp increased by close to seven percent. Producers' inventories were somewhat higher in the end of the year than in the beginning. See also the statistics attached.
Profit margins were generally somewhat increased.
The consumption of recovered at paper and board mills increased by 10 percent to 1.65 million tons in 1997. This resulted in an increase of the utilization rate to 16.9 percent compared to 16.7 percent in the year before. The collection of recovered paper has been calculated to 1.25 million tons corresponding to a recovery rate of about 60 percent. The availability of recovered paper was good during the year.
Investments in the pulp and paper industry in Sweden reached SEK 9.5 billion in 1997 and are predicted to stay at this level this year.
According to preliminary figures in the most recent capacityy survey, paper and board capacity will increase by a modest 125 thousand tons to 10,7 million tons in 1998. Market pulp capacity will stay unchanged at 3,9 million tons in 1998.
Swedish forestry has gone through some major changes during the last decade. All forest companies have introduced ambitious environmental programmes to be able to practice forestry without jeopardising the biological diversity. Sustainable Forest Management is today not only a question of sustainable yield, but also of ecological sustainability. Some steps towards sutainability that have been taken are: site-adaptation, day-to-day-conservation and ecological landscape planning.
The Swedish forest industry looks upon certification as a way to verify, and get credit for, the environmentally friendly methods that already have been, and will be, introduced.
The Swedish forest industry is involved in the certification issue both internationally and nationally.
The industry participated in ISO's Working Group (ISO/TC207/WG2 on Forestry) and fully supprted the WG proposal.
A Swedish FSC Working Group was formed in February 1996. Economic, Environmental and Social interests participated in the work. In 1997 an agreement on a Swedish FSC standard was reached. The standard was endorsed by the Board of FSC early 1998. All Swedish companies now practice the agreed standard.
The annaul timber harvest has throughout the whole century been far below the annual increment. At present, only 70 percent of the yield will be harvested. The Swedish fibre supply is therefore sustainable indeed.
