"The downturn in the economy was broad-based but was held back somewhat by strong service exports. Households' consumption expenditure decreased for the fifth quarter in a row," says Jessica Engdahl, Head of Section at Statistics Sweden.
The decrease is mainly due to destocking and lower household consumption, where household consumption fell by 0.6 percent.
"The previous resilience of the economy started to fade in the last quarter, and we expect worse times to come by the end of the year. High interest rates are expected to continue to have a major impact on both household consumption and capital spending," writes Alexandra Stråberg, Chief Economist at Länsförsäkringar, in a comment.
At the same time, there is also a slight increase in the retail sector. Retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) increased by 0.1 percent and retail sales in durables increased by 3.4 percent in October compared with the previous month.
"Despite the increase compared to the previous month, total retail sales showed a negative sales volume on a year-on-year basis for the 18th month in a row," says Jeongwon Kim, statistician at Statistics Sweden.