Swedish GDP Contracts In July, Industrial Output Growth Eases

(RTTNews) - Sweden's economy contracted in July, while industrial production expanded at a slower pace, separate reports from Statistics Sweden showed on Wednesday.

Gross domestic product dropped 0.2 percent month-on-month in July, reversing a 1.4 percent rebound in the previous month.

"GDP decreased slightly in July, partially driven by lower production in the goods industries and weaker net export of goods," Neda Shahbazi, an economist at Statistics Sweden, said.

On a yearly basis, GDP grew 2.0 percent in July, slower than the 2.7 percent expansion a month ago.

Another report showed that industrial production advanced 3.8 percent annually in July, though much slower than the 13.8 percent surge in the prior month.

Production in the service sector rose by 4.7 percent, and the output produced in the utility sector recovered strongly by 5.3 percent. Data showed the decline in construction production deepened to 4.5 percent from 0.6 percent.