January 26th, 2023, Tove Keldsen
According to our cost-of-living tracker, 61% of Swedes and Danes have felt the rising cost of living and have cut their usual spending. Swedes, however, have a much more pessimistic economic outlook for their country than the Danes.
Most Swedes believe Sweden will be in a recession in 12 months’ time. Danes are less worried about the national economy.
Swedish finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson recently predicted a recession lasting into 2024 for Sweden, and most Swedes agree. 75% of Swedes believe their country’s economy will be in a recession a year from now, 13% think it will remain stable, and only 5% think it will grow. This makes the Swedes much more pessimistic about the country’s economy than the Danes. Only 41% of Danes believe Denmark will be in a recession a year from now. 29% of Danes believe the economy will remain stable, and 9% that it will grow.
Danes are also overrepresented by the share saying they don’t know (21% versus 7% of Swedes), which imply that this is not a subject as present to them as it is to Swedes.
How well is the government managing the cost of living?
The majority of Swedes and Danes say the government is managing the cost of living badly. However, the Swedish evaluation of the government’s crisis management is tougher. 75% of Swedes say the government is managing the cost of living badly, while 18% say it is doing the job well. In Denmark, 54% say the government is doing a bad job, and 31% think it is doing well.
Methodology
Data is drawn from YouGov’s cost-of-living tracker, which describes the impact of price increases on the European consumer’s financial situation.
YouGov surveyed 1012 Danes and 1009 Swedes using standardized online interviews. The surveys were conducted between January 12-18, 2023. The results are representative of the population in Europe aged 18 and over.
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