Swedish house prices fall 4 pct

Bloomberg

The average price for one- and two-dwelling buildings declined 4 percent from the previous three-month period, Stockholm-based Statistics Sweden said in a statement on its Web site today.

Prices dropped 3 percent from the year-earlier period, the office said. The unemployment rate will rise to 10.3 percent in 2010, Svenska Handelsbanken AB predicted on Feb. 20, as exporters like truck maker Volvo AB, car maker Saab Automobile and tool maker Sandvik AB cut jobs. The economy will contract 2.7 percent in 2009. The government will spend about 40 billion kronor ($4.5 billion), or 1.3 percent of gross domestic product, this year to get the economy back to growth.