Hej,

With only two weeks left to go until the end of the year (and with that my return to full-time work as editor of The Local, after working only on this newletter during my maternity leave), let’s take a look at what the new year may have in store for the Swedish economy. I say “may” to hedge my bets, but also because things truly do look uncertain at the moment.

Before any of us panic, one thing to bear in mind is that the Swedish economy is at its core fairly solid and not prone to big fluctuations.

With that said, big fluctuations alert!

“Hold on tight, Sweden’s housing bubble has burst,” writes David Crouch in a new opinion piece about the plummeting house prices. Many banks as well as the central bank estimate they will fall by around 20 percent.

Even those who aren’t planning on selling their house or apartment any time soon will have to tighten their belts in the coming year.

The interest on mortgages is likely going to keep increasing for the time being. Those who have a fixed interest rate for the next couple of years are in luck, but those who haven’t should expect their costs to go up. Here are The Local’s top tips for getting the best rate on your mortgage.

And then there’s fuel and energy. Car owners had better consider whether or not they can manage with public transport instead. Home owners should save up money this winter so that they can pay those hefty bills to heat their homes – and think about how to reduce their use of electricity.

The downturn doesn’t only affect home owners. A lot of companies for rented apartments are hiking their rents to compensate for the record cost of energy (which is often included in the rent). In western and central Sweden, for example, the umbrella organisation for landlords wants to increase rents by 10 percent (compared to a 1.4 percent average increase last year), although this is being fought by the tenants’ association.

The unemployment rate, however, is less likely to be radically affected by the downturn, since it comes amid a historic demand for skilled labour, particularly in health and social care, according to job market analysts.

If you’ve got some free time today, I recommend listening to the latest episode of The Local’s Sweden in Focus podcast, in which my colleagues discuss the rising cost of living as well as migration agency delays, far-right meddling, and Swedish Christmas traditions.

In other news

A new report from Sweden’s Parliamentary Ombudsman has found that a number of cases at Sweden’s Migration Agency were “not actively processed for the majority of the processing time”, despite waits of more than three years. Here’s what we’ve learned from the report.

Sweden’s government has said it wants to develop a cultural canon to forge a greater sense of community, but the idea has met with opposition from arts sector representatives who worry that the long-held principle of keeping culture at arm’s length from politicians is under threat.

The government, joined at a press conference by the far-right Sweden Democrats, has also ordered the Migration Agency to withdraw more work and residence permits obtained on false premises, calling on it to appoint specialists, and develop automatic processes to identify abuses.

Sweden’s front pages have been filled this month with stories about corruption and stalking allegations against one of the country’s most senior police officers. This article explains the gist of it, but the story could become a headache for both the police authority and the government.

National police chief Anders Thornberg has appointed an inquiry to get to the bottom of what happened, but he has also been criticised for not acting resolutely enough when the allegations first came to his attention.

“What’s Strömmer waiting for? Replace the management of the police,” an editorial in the liberal-independent tabloid Expressen puts to Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer, who insists he still has faith in Thornberg.

Strömmer, being relatively newly-elected, of course wasn’t involved when the alleged events unfolded (and presumably neither was the then-government, since this appears to be an internal police matter), but when criticism pours down on an agency, a few drops of rain often also fall on the minister in charge as we’ve learned in the past, who in this case is Strömmer.

Strömmer now has a fine balancing act ahead of him, where he must not appear to meddle where he shouldn’t (the heads of government agencies are appointed by ministers in Sweden, but ministers are not supposed to interfere in their daily work), nor seem like he is shirking from responsibility.

Christmas is coming up, so I also want to wish you a god jul!

As always, thanks for reading.

Best wishes,

Emma

Sweden Elects is a weekly column by Editor Emma Löfgren looking at the big talking points and issues after the Swedish election. Members of The Local Sweden can sign up to receive the column as a newsletter in their email inbox each week. Just click on this “newsletters” option or visit the menu bar.