Swedes are getting warmer feelings for the euro than before as the percentage of those who would vote no to the euro has dropped significantly.

With just a few days to the Swedish EU presidency kick-off, the statistics office said that Swedes attitude to the euro and EMU collaboration is growing more positive. The percentage of those who would vote no to the euro has dropped significantly and the percentage that would vote yes has increased significantly compared to November 2008.

Still, a majority would vote no.

If there were to be a referendum on the euro in May, 43 percent said that they would vote no to the euro while 42 percent would vote yes.

The corresponding percent of those who would vote no was 47 percent in November 2008 and 52 percent in May 2008, while the percentage of those who would vote yes was 38 percent in November 2008 and 35 percent in May 2008. That gives evidence to a strongly increased support for the European currency.

"Swedes stream to the safe arms of the euro," a member of the small pro-euro Liberal Party, Carl B. Hamilton, wrote in a comment.

The Swedish currency, the krona, has lost a quarter of its value against the euro since September 1, and the economy shrank by a record 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to a year earlier, the worst drop since records began in 1970, according to statistics.

"Sweden has registered weaker growth than the eurozone since the crisis started," Cecilia Skingsley, chief analyst at Swedish bank Swedbank told news agency TT.

"Households are noticing that clothes and petrol and trips abroad have become more expensive. That may subside a bit but so far it hasn't really helped to have our own currency," she said.

Sweden, a country of about nine million inhabitants, has been a European Union member since 1995, but rejected joining the eurozone in a referendum in September 2003.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has ruled out a new euro referendum under his centre-right government's mandate that expires in September 2010 but has suggested the issue could be discussed after that.

Several junior parties in Reinfeldt's four-party coalition have said they are in favour of a new plebiscite during the next four-year term.