Financial News: Swedish GDP Contracts 0.2%; Retail Sales Growth Accelerate

Swedish GDP Contracts 0.2%; Retail Sales Growth Accelerates

04/29/2026 - 03:27:00 (RTTNews)

(RTTNews) - Sweden's economy contracted unexpectedly in the first quarter of 2026, while retail sales growth quickened in March, separate reports from Statistics Sweden showed on Wednesday.

Gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent sequentially in the first quarter, reversing a 0.5 percent rise in the fourth quarter, the flash data said. Further, this was the first decline since the second quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, GDP was expected to increase by 0.1 percent.

The annual economic growth moderated to 1.6 percent from 2.1 percent in the previous quarter. Economists had expected the rate to remain stable at 2.1 percent.

During March, GDP recovered 1.9 percent monthly in March versus a 0.6 percent decrease in February. The yearly growth accelerated to 2.5 percent from 1.3 percent.

Separate official data showed that retail sales grew at a faster pace of 6.2 percent annually in March, after a 2.2 percent gain in February. Moreover, this was the quickest expansion in four months.

Sales of durable goods advanced 9.0 percent from last year, and those of consumables were 3.3 percent higher.

Monthly, retail sales rebounded strongly by 3.1 percent after falling 0.8 percent in February.

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