Sweden’s population has the maturity to enforce social distancing themselves without being forced to do so. Even so that still affects businesses. Restaurants, bars, movie theaters only “seating” a certain percentage that they normally do, plus I’m guessing most of the elder population is staying at home... 2 months of that is certainly going to dent the economy.
People need to remember, isn’t Sweden about the same size of Georgia (popular and land mass?).
Ultimately it's the public who will decide when the economy recovers. Every business in the country could be open but until the majority of the public feels safe (which polls say is not so), the economy will suck and many businesses and jobs will disappear making it even tougher. The focus should be whatever it takes to change public opinion on safety and it's not merely saying "open the economy".
Trying to survive on 25% of normal traffic will obviously have an immediate effect in a business owner’s cash drawer but that is the least of it.
Sweden’s economy is oriented toward and dependent upon foreign trade. I can’t imagine there is much current demand for timber or iron ore. Nor are new orders for Saab’s and Volvo’s likely to be pouring in and future contracts are quite likely being cancelled.
And while Sweden accounts for only about 1% of the world’s arms trade, the country is the 3rd largest arms exporter per capita. Yeah those peace-loving civilized progressives are in reality Merchants of Death on a large scale (per capita) and right now the markets are shut down.
There can’t be a hell of a lot of cargo moving through the docks with so many countries closing their borders and shutting down the world's economies. Nor are the factories likely to be running three shifts a day. So the fact is the economy of Sweden will suffer no matter what they do.
The same reality exists in the USA. People can see the immediate effects but some of the secondary effects, which are unavoidable at this point, aren’t apparent to many people. Anecdotal I know but I took a drive the other day and was shocked (really, I was no shit shocked) to see all the commercial real estate signs. They were EVERYWHERE! Retail space, office space and restaurants all suddenly available. Dozens and dozens and dozens. These businesses have already gone under and neither they nor the associated jobs they provided are coming back. This is how fragile the economy is that this has happened after only 2 to 3 months, IMO shit is going to suck and suck bad for a long time.
One last editorial, people are dying. They are dying not from CoVid-19 but they are dying because of the lock down. How many have and will die will probably never be known but many of these deaths are absolutely UNNECESSARY and a result of what can now only be described as asinine decisions by “experts” and our “leaders”. The end result, IMO, is we won't have saved anyone.
When CoVid is completely behind us, say 5 years from now, life will be very different than it was pre-CoVid. Some industries will thrive ( video streaming, food delivery, ......). Others will be hammered ( restaurants, hotels, airlines......). In the end, our economy will thrive, but the multi-year transition will be hell.
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