However, there is some difference between developments in the United States, where growth has remained strong and unemployment is at its lowest level in almost 50 years, and the euro area, where developments have been more subdued. Wages are now rising increasingly rapidly in countries like Germany and the United States and are helping to push up inflation. But despite these basically good prospects, we also see a substantial number of risks regarding developments abroad, which I will come back to at the end of my speech. For some time now, we have been in an economic boom in Sweden. This in turn is partly due to the expansionary monetary policy. Despite a partial slowdown in growth, output is still above its trend level (see Figure 2). It was striking that GDP fell between the second and third quarters of last year, but we believe most of this has to do with temporary factors, including the fact that household consumption of cars was brought forward to quarter 2 due to amended tax rules, which pushed down car sales in quarter 3. 2 [13]  Figure 2. Economic activity still strong in Sweden High output level 6  High pressure on the labour market 6  GDP gap  4  4  2  2  0  0  -2  -2  -4  -4  -6  -6  -8  01  04  07  10  13  16  19  -8  Note. Left-hand graph.
Furthermore, the seasonal effect of domestic agriculture production supply was stronger this year, leading to further reduction of food items annual inflation. During 2011, consumer prices in Albania were subject to supply shocks, materialised in high imported prices. This effect was more moderate during July–August and, in the absence of sudden shocks, it is expected to subdue even further in the months ahead. Moreover, second-round effects are contained, under the influence of controlled expectations of economic agents on inflation. The domestic economic setting produced controlled inflationary pressures. Aggregate demand slowdown led to spare capacities of production factors and controlled long-term inflationary pressures on the economy. Therefore, core inflation was 2.9% in July, showing a downward trend, and was close to our inflation target. New economic data obtained in September are scarce. Following our earlier analysis and based on new available information, the Bank of Albania deems that the Albanian economy continued to grow during 2011. Economic activity relied primarily on public spending and exports surge, while the private sector demand had a slow positive performance. Consumption and investments were supported by crediting, but their upsurge is conditioned by hesitation to spend. Following the revised budget, the fiscal behaviour during the last two months is characterised by lower spending pace and lower budget deficit increase. Fiscal stimulus was present in the first quarter, while in the following months the fiscal policy was more contained, which is reflected in lower annual deficit increase.