STOCKHOLM, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Sweden’s general election in September will be a referendum on whether voters want lower or higher taxes, Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson said on Friday, adding she planned to reduce corporate tax if the government won a fresh mandate.
Swedes will vote in a general election in September and Svantesson said the opposition would increase taxes, for example to pay for rearmament, if they won.
“This will be a referendum on higher taxes,” Svantesson said of September’s general election. “We have to prioritize getting the economy growing again, not raising taxes, that’s not my path ahead.”
The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, has said taxes would have to go up to pay for higher defence spending.
Sweden’s economy is picking up speed after treading water for the last couple of years with the full effects of a series of rate cuts by the central bank and the government’s tax-cutting budget still to be felt.
GDP growth is expected to be about 3% this year, but Svantesson said more needed to be done to boost growth prospects in the years ahead.
“I want to cut corporate tax during the next mandate period to make Swedish companies even more attractive. There is competition (with other countries) on companies and jobs,” she told Reuters.
Since taking power in 2022, the government has cut taxes on income, electricity and savings among other things. It now plans to temporarily halve VAT on food from April.
Svantesson said the average family was 5,000 crowns ($542) richer per month in 2026 compared with 2022 thanks to tax cuts by the right-wing government.
The three-party minority coalition, which is backed by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, is behind the combined opposition in opinion polls.
($1 = 9.2336 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Simon Johnson, editing by Terje Solsvik, William Maclean)