New Head of Agency appointed

13 October 2011

The Government has appointed Joakim Sonnergård as Head of Agency for the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council.

Sonnergård has a Ph D in Economics from Stockholm University. He has amongst other things worked at the Ministry of Finance's Budget Department, was Director of Planing at the Prime Minister's Office and Head of Agency at the Expert Group for Environmental Studies.

Swedish Fiscal Policy 2011

9 September 2011

The 2011 report of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council was published on May 16 2011. There is now an English translation of the report available.
Swedish Fiscal Policy 2011
Principal conclusions and summary
Contact us for a printed version

New members appointed

18 August 2011

The Government has appointed Professor Lars Jonung as chairman, Professor John Hassler as vice chairman, Associate Professor Michael Bergman, Professor Steinar Holden, Eva Lindström, and Associate Professor Helena Svaleryd as members.

See Members and Staff for more information.

SWEDISH FISCAL POLICY 2011

16 May 2011

Despite a deep economic downturn, there were only small budget deficits in Sweden. Now a strong economic upturn with increasing employment is under way. The public finances are improving rapidly. The Government has revised its estimate of the scope for tax reductions and expenditure increases upwards. There are good grounds for this. At the same time, weaknesses in the economic policy decision-making process and the institutional framework may lead to increased tensions over time and thus threaten long-term stability. Such warnings may be perceived as irrelevant in the current situation. But events in other countries demonstrate the importance of identifying and preventing potential problems in good times.

As in previous years, the main emphasis of the report is on the public finances and the labour market. The report also discusses identification of business cycles, financial stability, taxes and education.

Summary in English
Complete report in Swedish

What should fiscal councils do?

22 Februari 2011
Updated 24 March 2011

Lars Calmfors has together with Simon Wren-Lewis written a paper about fiscal policy councils. They analyse different arrangements of councils, the experiences the already established councils have had and the role they should play in the future.
 
Read the paper

The Swedish Fiscal Policy Council in the British debate

22 February 2011

The Swedish Fiscal Policy Council has been referred to in the political debate concerning British fiscal policy and the assessment thereof. The council has been referred to in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. See below for some excerpts.
 
Ms Angela Eagle, 14 February, House of Commons:
On the Minister´s point about whether the OBR should use Treasury forecasters, Lars Calmfors, the chair of the Swedish fiscal policy council, has contrasted the arrangements in the Bill with those in Sweden. He said that it is very difficult when the OBR is working very closely with Treasury civil servants and other forecasters:
 
“one cannot have it both ways—the OBR cannot be both an independent watchdog and an in-house provider of input into the Treasury´s work."
 
We shall certainly want to explore in greater depth in Committee that aspect of the arrangements for our OBR which differs from the Swedish arrangements.
 
Mr William Bain, 14 February, House of Commons: The OBR´s role includes responsibility for preparing the Government´s economic and fiscal forecasts and issuing them alongside fiscal forecasts with the Budget. That is clearly helpful to the Government, but it means that Ministers are able to prepare in detail for any consequences of a Budget before the OBR makes its assessments public. Without safeguards, that could lead to concerns about the extent of private consultations between Ministers and the OBR prior to publication—the perceived problem during the release of unemployment data last summer.
As Lars Calmfors, chair of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council, wrote in The Guardian on 28 July last year:

“It might be better if the OBR provided a post-evaluation of the budget as an input into the work of parliament (in addition to a forecast before the budget)."
 
Lord Eatwell, 31 January, House of Lords: In Sweden, the Fiscal Policy Council was set up in 2007, once again by an incoming Conservative Government-there is a pattern here. On 18 November last year, the council wrote an open letter to the Government pointing to the discrepancy between its remit and its resources. What was the reaction? The Swedish Minister of Finance is reported to have reacted negatively to the letter and suggested-you guessed it-that the council's budget should be cut in response. Thus in Canada and Sweden-two jurisdictions for which we have great respect-critical reports have resulted in budgets being frozen or cut.

The Swedish Fiscal Policy Council publishes two background reports

17 December 2010

Two new background reports written by Lars Calmfors has been published. The first one argues that a fundamental overhaul of EU economic governance is needed. The second one analyses how independent fiscal watchdogs can strengthen the incentives for fiscal discipline.

Fiscal Policy Coordination in Europe
The role of independent fiscal policy institutions

Looming abolition of Hungarian Fiscal Policy Council

7 December 2010

On the 6th of December, the Financial Times published a letter written by Lars Calmfors (Head of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council), Robert Chote (Head of the Office for Budget Responsibility) and Coen Teulings (Head of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) regarding the Hungarian Council, which is facing liquidation after criticising the governments new budget bill.
 
Read the letter (Registration needed)
For more information see Fiscal Policy Councils abroad