Households and firms signal stronger optimism as financial opportunities improve.

For the first time in two years, the confidence indicator for the business sector has risen two consecutive months. At the same time, consumers showed the largest increase in economic self-assurance between two months since February 1993, the National Institute of Economic Research said on Wednesday.

The Economic Tendency Indicator, which measures business and consumer confidence in the economic situation, rose just over 6 points between April and May.

The financial situation, that’s been troubling firms during the credit crunch, improved slightly. 36 per cent of firms now stating that it is more difficult or considerably more difficult than normal to finance business activities, compared with 39 per cent in April.

Still, the times are far from joyful as the global economic downturn holds its grip on the Swedish economy.

“The indicator still shows a much weaker than normal situation in the business sector and the majority of firms forecast continued staff cuts”, the agency writes in its report.

The same goes for the households. Despite the facts that attitudes to both personal finances and the Swedish economy have improved, households are still considerably more pessimistic than normal.