Soft policy leaves Swedish krona open to attack

Subject Macroeconomic outlook for Sweden. Significance Sweden’s success in terms of relatively robust GDP growth, high rates of employment and good living standards is putting pressure on labour and housing costs. Effectively, the currency is taking the strain, helping to curb incipient damage to the country’s competitiveness. Impacts While the krona has seen a relatively steady devaluation over 2013-17, recent sharp falls suggest turbulence is increasing. The central bank could intervene, leaning against the wind, but this may fail to stem determined speculation. A sharp fall in the krona might stir domestic debates about the future of a cash-free society and the potential adoption of the euro.

Sweden and EMU

On 14 September, Sweden voted against adopting the euro, with 56.1 per cent voting against and 41.8 per cent voting in favour of the single European currency, with a strong turnout of 81.2 per cent. This was a blow to both the government and business lobbies, who strongly favoured euro entry. While Sweden does not have a formal opt-out clause like the UK and Denmark, they have remained outside the single currency area by postponing membership of ERMII and thereby failing to meet the exchange rate criterion. Since 1999, the Swedish krona has fluctuated from a high of 9.96 krona to the euro to a low of 8.06.

Book reviews: A neglected ‘Mecca’ for historians of science

Marco Beretta, A History of Non-Printed Science: a select catalogue o f the Waller Collection . Uppsala, 1993. Pp.199, 178 Swedish Krona. ISBN 91-554-3070-8 (ISSN 0346-7465) I first heard of this Waller Collection when a notice of it, and of this book, appeared in the Uppsala Newsletter on History of Science , 19, in 1993. The manuscript collection built up by the Stockholm surgeon Erik Waller (1875-1955) remains ‘hardly known to the international community of historians of science’, and the book tries to remedy this ignorance by describing some 70 of the greatest treasures in it. The collection, however, comprises over 35,000 letters etc. (with a remarkable collection of medals). It was purchased by Uppsala University in 1953, after the earlier donation of Waller’s equally wonderful, but better known, book collection in 1950.