Anders Borg, Finance Minister of Sweden was guest of honour at the monthly lunch of Nobelux (the Chamber of Commerce between the Nordic Countries, Belgium and Luxembourg) on Monday 20 June 2011.

Mr. Borg was introduced by Freddy Bracke of CLdN Cobelfret SA. In his introduction, Mr. Bracke praised Mr Borg as a a driving force and one of the “main thinkers” of the new Swedish financial policy; creating ideas that have helped to move the Swedish economy forward.

Mr. Borg, who was in Luxembourg to attend the meeting held on the previous day of the Euro zone Finance Ministers relating to Greek debt, began by describing his former hopes for resolution at the meeting as probably having been a “mistake”. When asked about his views of the situation in Greece, he observed that, among other factors, Greece is lacking trust between the electorate and the government.

Mr. Borg then moved on to his presentation, which was entitled “Sweden’s Recovery and Europe’s Challenges”. This presentation covered three main areas: the country’s economic recovery, performance and challenges.

He pointed out that Sweden has most recently enjoyed strong growth (at about 3%) because the Swedish economy is commodity based. He attributed this growth, in part, to a rapid increase in jobs in the private sector. This increase, he said, was a result of Sweden being known for minimal red tape for businesses establishing a company there. As a result, Sweden’s economy has survived better than other countries in Europe and there is little discussion of cutbacks.

Concerning Sweden’s challenges, Mr Borg talked extensively about the increased competition from China, pointing out that “China’s share of world trade is now greater than the US and Germany”.

Mr. Borg ended his presentation with an question and answer session.