Lecture on the Swedish economy

Jörgen Kennemar, business economist at Swedbank and Petter Järte from the Swedish Purchasing and Logistics Association (SILF) talked about Sweden's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) with a focus on both the manufacturing and service sectors. The 40 or so participants on site (teachers, students and partners) were first given a review of how the index is designed and that the figures for the last few months show a slightly positive trend. Next, it was time to delve into current PMI data and economic trends that can influence purchasing managers' decision-making.

One message was that today's uncertainty, with tariff wars and other critical events, has become the new normal for many Swedish companies. Previous trends such as globalization and outsourcing have changed direction and shifted to regionalization and insourcing.