Swedish Economic Sentiment Falls; Consumers More Optimistic

Swedish economic sentiment declined in April amid weak confidence among manufacturers and retailers, the latest survey by the National Institute of Economic Research (NIER) showed Thursday.

The economic tendency indicator fell to 100.9 in April from 101.8 in March. Economists had forecast a steeper decline to 100.5. Manufacturing confidence index fell to -1 as expected from 1 in March.

Retailer's confidence index dropped to 5 in April from 7 in the preceding month. The indicator for sentiment among construction firms remained unchanged at -1. The confidence gauge for the overall industry fell one point to 11 during the month.

Meanwhile, household optimism improved strongly in April with the consumer confidence index rising to 4.7 from zero in the previous month. This beat forecast for a reading of 0.5. Private sector confidence jumped to 24 from 21.