Sweden’s services sector shrinks in April

Sweden’s services sector has contracted in April, data by Swedbank showed on Monday, which followed four consecutive months of expansion.

The Services Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at a reading of 48.1 in April, down from a revised up 54.1 in March.

Last month, new business volume dropped considerably, with the respective gauge down to 45.5 from 56.4 in March.

In addition, the sub-indices of new orders (46.8 down from 54.0 in March) and delivery times (49.5 down from 53.9 in March) also registered sharp deterioration.

Conversely, the sub-indices of employment (52.2 up from 51.5 in March) and for raw and input prices (61.9 up from 58.7 in March) contributed positively to the Services PMI.

Overall, the data suggested that economic recovery was still frail.

The Swedish Krona was 0.10% weaker on the day against the Euro, with the EUR/SEK currency pair last trading at 11.6344.