The Swedish government on Tuesday announced a deficit of 176 billion kronor (about 24.8 billion U.S. dollars) for 2009, accounting for 2.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Products.
+ACI-Over half of Sweden's 2009 deficit, resulted from loans to the Riksbank designed to help strengthen the central bank's currency reserves while the remaining resulted from lower tax receipts in the wake of the deep recession,+ACI- said a statement from the National Debt Office.
But the 2.6 percent of the GDP is well below the expected average for other countries in the European Union, where member states' average budget
shortfalls for 2009 are expected to average around 7 percent, the statement added.
It is believed that this change indicated the effects of the economic downturn on the central government budget.