Busy roads expected in Sweden ahead of Midsummer

Roads are expected to be busy across Sweden this afternoon, as people travel to where they’re going to spend Midsummer’s Eve.

Midsummer’s Eve falls on Friday, and the days around the holiday tend to be one of Sweden’s busiest traffic weekends. Add to that stressed drivers just before the weekend, and tired drivers after a weekend of food, possibly aquavit and staying up late with family or friends. 

Traffic is expected to be the busiest between Thursday noon and 6pm, as well as between 9am and 2pm on Friday. The peak hours on Sunday are expected to be between 2pm and 6pm when people head home from their or other people’s summer houses.

Especially busy roads are expected to be the E6 between Strömstad and Malmö, the E4 between Helsingborg and Luleå, the E22 between Norrköping and Kalmar, the roads around Lake Siljan and Lake Mälaren, and roads leading to the archipelago in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Bohuslän. But don’t avoid the E6, E4 or E22 in favour of minor roads. Major dual carriageways are usually the safest option.

Swedish vocabulary: a road – en väg

Swedish playpark chain Leos Lekland files for debt restructuring

Leos Lekland, a chain of popular indoor playlands in Sweden, has applied for debt restructuring, reports Göteborgs-Posten.

“We had been hoping that the situation would stabilise, but repeated financial hits have made it impossible. Debt restructuring is now our only chance to save the company and around 1,000 jobs,” said Leos Lekland founder Joakim Gunler in a statement.

Leos Lekland operates 27 venues in Sweden. The crisis began during the pandemic, when it had to temporarily close, and was according to the company made worse by increased costs and rent hikes.

Swedish vocabulary: debt restructuring – rekonstruktion

New economic forecast predicts Sweden’s inflation could fall to 0.4 percent next year

Sweden’s National Institute of Economic Research (NIER) predicts that although the Riksbank isn’t expected to cut interest rates at its meeting next week, it will make another three cuts by the end of the year, starting in August. The Riksbank itself expects another two cuts.

NIER further predicts in its latest report that inflation measured to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) will drop to 2.8 percent this year, and fall even below that next year, to 0.4 percent. CPIF, with mortgage rates removed, will drop to 1.6 percent next year, it believes. 

Unemployment is expected to remain high, 8.4 percent this year and 8.2 percent next year. But it will steadily but excruciatingly slowly keep falling, at least according to NIER’s forecast, and reach 7.4 percent in 2027.

Swedish vocabulary: unemployment – arbetslöshet

What do we know about Sweden’s first stop-and-search zone?

The stats are in after Sweden’s first stop-and-search zone was lifted at midnight. 

Sweden two months ago introduced a new law which enables police to designate a certain area a “security zone” if there is “significant” risk of a conflict between criminal gangs, and the zone is considered to be of “extraordinary” importance to stop the violence.

The zones can be introduced for a maximum of two weeks at a time, and means that police are allowed to stop adults or children, or search vehicles, without there being a concrete suspicion that a crime has been committed. But it’s not supposed to be used to carry out random searches, so there needs to be a reason such as the person behaving in an odd way, who they’re in contact with, or intelligence reports.

Hageby in Norrköping, central Sweden, was the first area to be designated a “security zone” two weeks ago.

Police stopped and searched people 368 times and cars 41 times. No weapons or explosives were found, but the police representative in charge of security zones from the national level described it as a success, saying that they had manage to “cool down” the violent trend.

Swedish vocabulary: a security zone – en säkerhetszon