Swedish growth fires in 2015; smaller rises for Denmark, Finland

Sweden's gross domestic product (GDP) jumped 4.1 percent in 2015, a sharp increase from a year earlier, while Denmark managed a rise of 1.2 percent and Finland posted a small but unexpected rise of 0.4 percent, official figures showed Monday, reports AFP.

Swedish exports helped drive a fourth-quarter increase of 4.5 percent, Statistics Sweden said, beating analysts' forecasts.

"This is the fifth quarter with a steady rise," the Swedish national statistics office said.

Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, had forecast overall growth of 3.7 percent for 2015, after it rose by 2.1 percent in 2014.

The Swedish economy was supported by strong investment which increased by 7.3 percent in 2015, including export growth of 5.9 percent and robust household consumption.

"As for GDP components, all underlying components surprised on the upside in Q4 ... underlining that growth is broad based," said Andreas Wallstrom, chief analyst at Nordea Bank.

"Public consumption was probably lifted as a result of the influx of refugees. The immigrant situation will probably boost government consumption and GDP also in the coming quarters," he said.

Earlier this month, the Swedish central bank cut its key interest rate by 15 basis points to an all-time low of -0.5 percent, citing the risk of slowing inflation and falling confidence in its monetary policy.

Bolstered by household demand advancing 2.1 percent year on year, Danish growth was marginally ahead of its 1.0 rise for 2014 although the third quarter showed a 0.1 percent fall, ending a run of eight straight quarterly rises.

Statistics Denmark indicated growth of 0.5 percent was needed each quarter to hit 1.2 percent for 2016 as a whole but warned that was an ambitious target as "quarterly growth of 0.5 percent is above the quarterly average for the past 15 years" -- a period which notably saw virtual stagnation between 2010 and 2013.

Meanwhile in Finland, GDP grew by 0.4 percent in 2015 year-on-year, after its third year of recession, according to Finland's National Statistical Institute.

After three years of consecutive GDP decline, the Central Bank of Finland had expected a further contraction in 2015 of 0.1 percent.

In addition to its ageing population and the decline of two of its main industries, paper and electronics, Finland has suffered from the economic crisis in Russia.

In the fourth quarter of last year, it nevertheless benefited from a small rise in exports compared to the previous quarter and household consumption increased by 0.2 percent compared to the previous three months.

Across the Baltic Sea, former Soviet republic Latvia reported its GDP rose 2.7 percent in 2015 following 2.4 percent for 2014, the year the country of two million joined the eurozone, albeit down on 4.1 percent for 2013 and 5.0 in 2012.