- GDP decreased for the third consecutive quarter. The downturn is mainly explained by reduced investments in intellectual property products and in dwellings as well as by increased service imports. Household consumption expenditure on the other hand increased, following five quarters of decline, says Jessica Engdahl, head of section at the National Accounts.

What is GDP?

Gross domestic product, GDP, is defined as the value of all goods and services produced in the country. GDP is used as a measure of economic growth and is published quarterly.

Summary of the fourth quarter

Percentages refer to seasonally adjusted volume changes compared with the previous quarter, unless otherwise stated. Tables available at the end of this statistical news also show volume changes in relation to the corresponding quarter the previous year.

• Household final consumption rose by 0.7 percent. Increased expenditure in housing contributed the most.
• General government consumption increased by 0.5 percent. Local and regional governments rose by 0.5 percent while central government consumption increased by 0.6 percent.
• Changes in inventories contributed positively to GDP by 0.5 percentage points, mainly due to changes in industrial inventories.
• Gross fixed capital formation dropped by 1.8 percent. The downturn was mainly due to reduced investments in intellectual property products. Investments in dwellings continued to decrease.
• Exports decreased by 0.1 percent and imports rose by 0.9 percent. Net exports contributed negatively to GDP by 0.5 percentage points.
• Value added in the business sector decreased by 0.2 percent. Value added rose by 0.3 percent in the goods-producing industries and fell by 0.5 percent in the service-producing industries. Government value added increased by 1.0 percent.
• The total number of employed persons decreased by 0.1 percent. The number of hours worked increased by 0.9 percent in the whole economy and fell by 0.2 percent in the business sector. Labour productivity in the business sector was unchanged.
• Household real disposable income decreased by 0.3 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
• Public administration showed a deficit of SEK 46,4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. This can be compared to a deficit of SEK 29,9 billion during the same quarter in 2022.

Revisions

Non-adjusted GDP growth has been revised compared to the previous publication. The first, second and third quarters of 2023 have been revised upwards by 0.3, 0.1 and 0.3 percentage points respectively.

GDP for the calendar year 2022 has been revised downwards by 0.2 percentage points. The third quarter has been revised downwards by 0.5 percentage points and the other quarters have been revised downwards by 0.2 percentage points each.

In seasonally adjusted values, the first, second and third quarters of 2023 have been revised upwards by 0.2, 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively compared to the previous publication. The first, third and fourth quarters of 2022 have been revised downwards by 0.1, 0,1 and 0,2 percentage points while the second quarter has been revised upwards by 0.2 percentage points.

Changes to the Economic Statistics

SStarting with reference years 2022 and 2023 there have been changes implemented to the business statistics. The changes aim at improving the statistics and more accurately reflecting the businesses and their activities. Amongst the changes is a review of the statistical unit KAU (kind of activity unit) implemented in Statistics Sweden´s Business Register (FDB). The review has implications on the statistics, primarily through a more comprehensive coding of ancillary activity in the FDB. Units that are coded as ancillary are assigned to the unit that they serve. In the short-term business statistics, the changes are implemented for the reference year 2023 whil

Impact on the National Accounts

The basis for the quarterly national accounts (QNA) are the preceding annual accounts (ANA), published 18 months after the end of the reference year. The quarters of 2023 are thus extrapolated from the detailed ANA of 2021, published in May of 2023. The implemented changes to the short-term business statistics imply that there are differences between the business population that was used in the ANA of 2021 and that used for the compilation of the quarters of 2023. These differences will prevail up until the compilation of the ANA for 2022, published in May of 2024.

In the compilation of the quarterly accounts of 2023, adjustments for these differences will be made in cases where particularly warranted. Nevertheless, despite the eventual improvements that the changes in the business statistics will yield, there may be some increased uncertainty to the industry wise estimations for the quarters of 2023.

Changes for users retrieving information with the help of an API

In conjunction with the release of the fourth quarter of 2023, certain additions have been made to a number of tables in the Statistical Database. Unfortunately, these improvements have implied that one of the tables has been replaced and that existing APIs against it therefore no longer function and will need to be replaced.

The table in question is:

Labour costs (ESA2010), current prices, SEK million by industrial classifcation SNI 2007. Quarter 1993K1 - 2023K4

The GDP indicator for the first quarter of 2024 will be published on 2024-04-29 at 8:00.

Complete quarterly national accounts for the first quarter of 2024 will be published on 2024-05-30 at 8:00.

Every fifth year, the national accounts undergo a benchmark revision of the entire time series. The revision implies introducing any new or improved methods and sources into the accounts. The results of the next benchmark revision will be released on 2024-05-30. More information on the main components of the revision will be communicated during the first quarter of 2024.