1. Trade and Economy
Swedens perspective

2. Sweden – one of the richest countries
• Sweden is one of the richest
countries in the world.
• Population of approximately 9.5
million people
• Swedes pay a lot of their income in
taxes, in a range between 30-50 %
of your income.
• We receive welfare in forms of an
almost free medical care, free
education, free or reduced fee for
elderly care and different types of
contribution for the disabled, sick
etc.

3. After the second World War
• Sweden had a good economy
compared to the rest of the
world since Sweden was one of
the countries in Europe, which
wasn't in ruins.
• Even though Sweden wasn’t
really destroyed by the war, we
too got economic support from
the United States: The Marshall
Plan

4. Local example: Vällingby
• Vällingby was the first so called
ABC City. ABC is an acronym in
swedish meaning labour (Arbete)
housing (Boende) and centre
(Centrum).
• The purpose: the inhabitants
would not have to leave the suburb
to go to work or to shop.
• Vällingby is an icon of the 1950s
architecture and a fine example of
the building of the Swedish
welfare state as well as the most
famous Swedish ABC suburb.

5. The million program
• The Swedish government in
1965 decided to build a million
new homes, called “the million
program”.
• After Sweden's long time period
of a growing economy, we were
hit by an industrial crisis in the
mid-70s. It took form as a
recession and was a period,
which was characterized by
unemployment, and had a very
weak economic growth.

6. The 1990s and the crisis during 2000
• In 1992, the fixed exchange rate collapsed due to currency
speculation. In order to defend the exchange rate the central bank
raised the marginal rate to 500%.
• Much of currency speculation was that ordinary businesses losing
confidence in the krona and brought precaution out money to hedge
future foreign payments.
• This insanely high rate only lasted for three days and thereafter went
back to 50 %. Sweden went through a tough economy.
• Between 1995 and 2000, the ”dot-com bubble” occurred, which was
a historic speculative bubble in the stock market.

7. Local example: Kista
• The largest IT-centre in Sweden today,
located here in the northern part of
Stockholm.
• is a somewhat later example of the ABC
City and is one of the last suburbs built
according to the million program.
• In the year 2000 the politicians in Sweden
launched new guidelines on how Sweden
was going to be an IT society available for
the whole population. The politicians
believed that if we had a better
information society, the democracy would
be strengthened as well. To facilitate this
policy, the authorities in Stockholm
established the company Kista Science
City AB