IS EUROPE’S RECESSION SPREADING BEYOND THE EUROZONE?

"When Sweden’s Q4 GDP fell 1.1% from the previous quarter, most analysts thought of it as a temporary blip. After all the Q4 GDP was still positive on a year-over-year basis.

Sweden GDP YOY (Bloomberg)

But the “temporary blip” out of Sweden has turned into something more ominous when the February industrial production numbers came out this morning. Here we are no longer talking about Q4 which was challenging for most major economies.

Reuters: Swedish industrial production suffered its sharpest fall since 2009 in February, jarring a reassuringly rosy outlook painted by other recent economic indicators and calling into question expectations the central bank will not take rates any lower.

Sweden Industrial Production YOY (Bloomberg)

Industrial orders have also turned sharply negative.

Sweden Industrial Orders YOY (Bloomberg)

Of all the European economies, Sweden was supposed to be fairly insulated from the Eurozone problems, particularly given its decent debt to GDP ratio of 37% and export oriented economy..."

at http://pragcap.com/is-europes-recession-spreading-beyond-the-eurozone