Sweden readies infrastructure boom to help lower unemployment

Stockholm

SWEDEN'S government will work to reverse a 30-year stagnation in public and private investments to meet its main pledge of lowering unemployment.

Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson said there's a big potential, since public investments as a share of the Swedish economy have been stable since the 1980s while private investments have dropped. The Social Democratic-led government will target spending on roads and railways, including high-speed networks to connect the biggest cities, she said. It will encourage investments in projects by the state-run pension funds, and look at setting up debt-financed projects, she added.