Mr. Bäckström gives a broadbrush picture of the Swedish economy and monetary policy Speech by the Governor of the Bank of Sweden, Mr. Urban Bäckström, held at seminars before the Midland Bank and Merrill Lynch, respectively, in New York on 30/4/97. Economic developments in recent years In the past few years Swedish economic policy has achieved tangible results. •  By an improvement in credibility, important progress has been made towards greater economic stability. Favourable economic growth in Sweden has been combined with a rate of inflation that is the lowest for several decades. •  There is broad political agreement in Sweden on the consolidation of government finance. This is manifested in the so called convergence programme that aims to eliminate the budget deficit not later than 1998. The budget reinforcements which the Government and the Riksdag (Sweden’s parliament) have undertaken in recent years are extensive. The six-monthly monitoring arrangement provides a means of ensuring that government finance is developing as planned. Moreover, in the Economic Bill this spring the Government states that the long-term target for the general Government budget is a surplus of 2 per cent of GDP as a cyclical average. The gradual adjustment to this goal is also specified. The general government financial balance has been strengthened from 12.3 per cent of GDP in 1993 to -2.5 per cent in 1996. This is a substantial improvement.
First and foremost, this role consists in the creation of an environment in which citizens, business community and the entire economy may succeed on the global markets of products, services, labour, capital and knowledge. Efficient performance of this role calls for significant changes in the functioning of e-administration, as compared to the traditional public administration. E-administration must creatively use technology to provide better services to citizens and business community, by offering them a wider choice (e.g. of ways of communicating with public offices) and options of customization of services, accompanied by mitigation of costs. E-administration must alter organization of its work and communication among public offices and public administration authorities. This can be achieved e.g. by taking over the burden of information management from customers (citizens and business community). Eadministration must set the directions of development of eeconomy through creation of strategies, regulations and a system of incentives. The state, acting as a regulating body, can define the standards of operation by imposing on the citizens or a group of “better prepared” citizens the obligation to use electronic media of communication. In the United States and the Netherlands, for instance, large enterprises are obliged to submit e-tax returns. 5 In France, on the other hand, the student and academic community have been viewed as an engine to launch the new standards. Therefore, applications for scientific grants are accepted solely in the electronic format. 6 The imposition of obligations is one of the methods to popularize the interactive communication methods.