The Swedish authorities were alarmed by the growth in the number of billionaires in the country at the end of 2020 amid the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as this indicates a widening gap between rich and poor. Bloomberg reports.
The inequality situation in Sweden has worsened in recent years due to tight monetary policy, which has led to inflation in asset prices in the stock market, and more recently, a jump in unemployment in the country amid COVID-19. Last year, 40 of the kingdom’s citizens became billionaires in Swedish kronor and dollar millionaires thanks to the rise in asset values in the stock market, according to a study by Dagestan Industri.
The combined wealth of 169 Swedish entrepreneurs or wealthy families in 2020 increased by 295 billion kronor ($ 35 billion) to 1.3 trillion kronor. This corresponds to approximately 40 percent of all private savings in Sweden held in equities and equity funds.
Kingdom Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson said she sees “an obvious risk” of the so-called K-shaped economic recovery, in which the rich will become richer and the poor poorer. The head of the Ministry of Finance, along with like-minded people in the coalition led by the Social Democrats, hinted that the government could use taxes to improve the situation with inequality in the country.
During the pandemic, Sweden became the only country in Europe and one of the few countries in the world that has abandoned quarantine. The kingdom’s authorities hoped that this would not only develop collective immunity, but also reduce the negative impact of the pandemic on the economy. According to preliminary data, the approach of the Swedish authorities paid off. Data from the local statistics office show that the kingdom’s GDP grew more than expected in the third quarter of 2020. From July to September, the country’s economy grew by 4.9 percent in the second quarter, while it was forecast to grow by 4.3 percent.