STOCKHOLM (dpa-AFX) - Sweden's economic growth accelerated sharply in the fourth quarter of 2018, and beat economists' expectations by a wide margin, underpinned by strong consumption and exports, data from Statistics Sweden showed on Thursday.
Gross domestic product grew 2.4 percent year-on-year following 1.5 percent expansion in the third quarter. Economists had expected the pace of growth to remain unchanged.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP rose 1.2 percent after a 0.1 percent contraction in the previous three months. The growth was double the 0.6 percent economists had expected.
Household consumption grew 0.7 percent quarterly and state spending rose 0.6 percent. Exports climbed 3.1 percent and imports increased 1.4 percent. In contrast, investments decreased 1.6 percent.
Changes in inventories added 0.3 percentage points to the fourth quarter growth.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2019 AFX News
