The Swedish government has declared the details of its 2012 budget. According to it several fiscal measures are taken to offset the effects of the crisis, to improve long-term job and growth prospects and to strengthen welfare of the country. The value-added tax (VAT) on restaurant and catering services has been reduced, taxes for pensioners decreased and the tax-free threshold for state income tax has been increased in 2012 Budget.
A total of SEK15bn (USD2.2bn) will be spent in 2012 and SEK17.3bn in 2013. To ensure that Sweden can withstand the effects of a worsening Eurozone debt crisis the government has built “safety margins” into the budget.
The government focused on measures for ensuring a stable and efficient financial system and included the plans to provide substantially increased resources for the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) and at the same time to raise the capital adequacy requirement for banks, partly to reduce default risks, partly to reduce taxpayers’ costs.
