Swedish central government payments resulted in a surplus of 67.7 billion kronor ($10.4 billion) last month, the Debt Office said Monday. This was 14.2 billion kronor higher than the forecast.

The difference is mainly due to revenue from the sale of shares in Nordea.

In the beginning of February the Swedish government sold shares corresponding to 6.3 percent of outstanding shares in Nordea, which resulted in revenue of 18.9 billion kronor. After the divestment the central government owns 13.5 percent of the shares.

The Swedish government last week raised its economic growth forecast for this year and said unemployment would shrink significantly, following the recent publication of strong statistics.

Finance Minister Anders Borg now expects Sweden's gross domestic product this year to grow 4.8 percent, up from its previous estimate of 3.7 percent.

"We now predict growth of well above four percent, which signifies that we already now have erased the impact of the crisis and that we will continue to see rapid growth," Anders Borg said.

The country's GDP increased 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, beating analyst expectations, official statistics showed Tuesday. Compared with the third quarter GDP increased 1.2 percent.

The top Nordic bank Nordea posted a 15-percent-hike in net profit for 2010 and a 72-percent-jump in the fourth quarter, largely due to Sweden's strong economic recovery.