As the pandemic deepens and lockdowns spread, Europeans are saving more and growing increasingly pessimistic about the future, a Reuters analysis of data shows. Only one country bucks the trend: Sweden.
The virus has forced millions to turn to the state for support, widened the gap between rich and poor and exposed the vulnerability of countries whose economies are unable to easily switch into home-office mode.
A survey of European households — to measure their expectations for the economy and their own finances in the coming year — showed they have largely become despondent about the future, in particular in hard-hit countries such as Spain and Italy. Only Sweden has escaped this wave of pessimism.
Swedes are more optimistic now than they were before the pandemic struck, having seen their expectations rise during the past year. However those in the wider European Union have seen their economic expectations tumble by more than a fifth, according to researchers who scored people’s sentiment and how it has changed over time.
“Sweden stands out,” said Gene Ambrocio, an economist with Finland’s central bank, who discovered the difference in his research.
Shuttered high streets are commonplace around Europe. But Swedes still eat out, shop and rarely wear masks. Chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who set this course, has won cult status for keeping gyms and even saunas open.
Swedish workplaces also never shut down, a stark contrast to the pandemic experienced by other Europeans. Ireland, for example, endured the longest lockdown, closing all but essential workplaces for 163 days from the start of the pandemic to the middle of January, according to a Reuters analysis of the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker.
Keeping the country open has kept Swedes’ spirits up, the study suggests. Ambrocio also believes the Swedish exception could be down to their faith in government and confidence in its liberal approach to dealing with the pandemic.
Rejecting lockdowns has also helped the Swedish economy, which has fared better than much of Europe.
Although there has been growing domestic criticism of the government’s approach, this has resulted in only mild restrictions, and no fundamental change of course. Sweden’s death rate, although several times higher than Nordic neighbours, has been lower than several European countries that opted for lockdowns. Recent infections in Sweden have, however, been worse than Ireland.
Ireland, by contrast, has taken a tough course from the outset of the pandemic.
In the run-up to Christmas, the government loosened the rules, opening pubs and allowing families to gather. The result, a dramatic spike in deaths weeks later, has been seized on by politicians as evidence that strict lockdowns are the only way to tackle the virus.
Sweden’s recent rates of infection have outstripped Ireland’s, but not as dramatically as expected. Pandemic deaths in Sweden, at more than 12,000, are worse than in Ireland, which is half its size and has suffered about 4,000 deaths.
https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/FINANCES/oakverxqapr/index.html
