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'Crisis? What Crisis,' Swedes say •
Sweden's economy 'strong as Pippi Longstocking' Sweden and its Nordic neighbors Norway, Denmark and Finland have emerged as a shelter for international investors dumping bonds from Europe’s most indebted governments, according to Bill O’Neill, chief investment officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.
“Investors are seeing the visibility in northern Europe and are willing to shift allocation towards these markets,” O’Neill told Bloomberg, poiting out that countries free from austerity constraints and economies with flexible currencies will attract capital -- in contrast to dept-burdens eurozone countries with "one-size-fits-all interest rate and a single currency".
The Swedish krona hit a two-year high against the dollar on Wednesday and closed in on a 10-year peak against the euro as better than expected trade data boosted the currency.
“This suggests that the global recovery continues to support the Swedish economy, even as the problems in the eurozone periphery still seem far from resolved,” Valentin Marinov at Citigroup told Financial Times.
With record growth, healthy public finances, booming exports and a soaring krona, Sweden has easily skirted Europe's debt woes.
The Swedish economy will show strong growth this year and in 2012, after emerging relatively unscathed from the economic crisis, notably thanks to strong public finances, the OECD said last week. General Angel Gurria called the Swedish economy "as strong as Pippi Longstocking”, the legendary children literature's character created by the country's beloved Astrid Lindgren.
Last week Sweden cancelled the sale of four billion kronor (450 million euros, $600 million) worth of treasury bonds, blaming higher yields in the neighbouring eurozone for driving down interest in Swedish debt.
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