iShares MSCI Sweden Index (EWD) has been down 12% over the past two weeks. John Acher for Reuters reports that the Scandinavian neighbors have reached an agreement on the joint market creation of trading "green certificates." These certificates show that a volume of power produced from renewable sources has been demanded by a customer, making an incentive for investment in this type of production.
This could be just the uplift that Sweden’s economy needs, as their consumer confidence indicator has fallen 9 points from May to June. David Landes for The Local reports that the business confidence indicator has remained below average for the past few months, too.
The low confidence in Sweden may have something to do with widening economic class divisions during the past 20 years. Concerns are growing that working class Swedes have not had the same improvements as the white collar higher wage earners. The Local reports that growth has benefited primarily the white collar workers, small business owners and the well-educated people in the big cities.
