– GDP decreased for the second consecutive quarter. The downturn was general but counteracted in part by strong exports of services. Household consumption expenditure was negative for the fifth consecutive quarter, says Jessica Engdahl, head of section at the National Accounts Department.

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 third 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 fell by 0.6 percent, with reduced expenditure among most purposes.
• General government consumption was unchanged. Local and regional governments rose by 0.3 percent while central government consumption decreased by 0.7 percent.
• Changes in inventories contributed negatively to GDP by 1.4 percentage points, mainly due to decreased industrial inventories.
• Gross fixed capital formation dropped by 0.6 percent. Investments in dwellings continued to decrease. Investments in other buildings and structures also contributed negatively during the quarter.
• Exports increased by 1.4 percent and imports decreased by 1.5 percent. Net exports contributed positively to GDP by 1.5 percentage points.
• Value added in the business sector decreased by 0.2 percent. Value added fell by 0.8 percent in the goods-producing industries and rose by 0.2 percent in the service-producing industries. Government value added decreased by 0.6 percent.
• The total number of employed persons increased by 0.1 percent. The number of hours worked decreased by 0.5 percent in the whole economy and were unchanged in the business sector. Labour productivity in the business sector fell by 0.1 percent.
• Household real disposable income decreased by 0.6 percent compared to the third quarter of 2022.
• The public administration showed a deficit of SEK 5.9 billion in the third quarter of 2023. This can be compared to a surplus of SEK 10.5 billion during the same quarter 2022.

Revisions

Non-adjusted GDP growth has been revised compared to the previous publication. The first and second quarters of 2023 have been revised upwards by 0.4 and 0.5 percentage points.

GDP growth for the full calendar year 2022 has been revised upwards by 0.1 percentage points. The first quarter has been revised downwards by 0.1 percentage points and the second quarter has been revised upwards by 0.2 percentage points. The third and fourth quarters have been revised upwards by 0.1 percentage points.

In seasonally adjusted values, the first quarter of 2023 has been revised upwards by 0.1 percentage points while the second quarter remains unchanged compared to the previous publication. The first quarter of 2022 has been revised downward by 0.2 percentage points and the third quarter has been revised upwards by 0.4 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.

The GDP indicator for the fourth quarter of 2023 will be published on 2024-01-29 at 8:00.

Complete quarterly national accounts for the fourth quarter of 2023 will be published on 2024-02-29 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.