The Swedes, who have the world’s oldest central bank and a 150-year-old currency, began discussing the benefits of switching to the euro after the krona’s unprecedented depreciation last year. Before that, the topic had hardly been raised at all.
“Between 2010 and 2022 I got zero requests to speak about euro adoption,” said veteran economist Lars Calmfors, a frequent commentator on economic policy, at a recent seminar in Stockholm. “By the latest count, that number is up to six or seven a week.”
Recent opinion polls still place the krona above the euro, although support for adopting the single currency is growing in tandem with the krona’s decline.
For now, however, it’s just talk, and Swedes are looking over the fence to see if the grass really is greener on the other side after the krona’s plunge hit consumers looking to buy imported goods, retailers selling them and manufacturers who rely on eurozone and other countries for components.