It’s not yet 6am and dozens of homeless people are already queuing outside Stockholm’s central station for breakfast, their numbers bigger than ever, charities say.
Hit by the highest inflation in more than 30 years and poised for recession, Sweden’s visible signs of poverty are mounting amid rising inequality.
“So many people are coming here to breakfast,” said Kavian Ferdowsi who runs a charity helping the homeless.
“In the 13 years that I’ve run this, we’ve never had so many people,” he told AFP as his colleagues served up cinnamon buns and coffee.
Sweden has been hit hard by the effects of the war in Ukraine. Its currency, the krona, is weaker than it has ever been against the euro, and aggressive interest rate hikes have left many households with hefty mortgages payments.
Long stable and prosperous, Sweden’s economy is now one of the worst performers in Europe.
After a spike in electricity prices at the start of the winter, food prices are now Swedes’ main concern, up 20 per cent from a year ago.
Inflation has hovered stubbornly around 12 per cent since November, according to official statistics on Wednesday.
“The first wave of inflation was just energy prices and some import prices. But now it has spread to the entire economy,” said Annika Alexius, a Stockholm University economist.
Making ends meet
Low-income households that were already struggling to make ends meet are most affected, but even the country’s middle class — who due to years of low interest rates are now among the most indebted in Europe — are finding it difficult to cope with skyrocketing mortgage payments.
A shop run by the Red Cross in the capital sells leftover supermarket items at cut-rate prices.
Marianne Orberg, a 73-year-old former lawyer, has picked up a few radishes and bread rolls on her twice-weekly shop there.
While the pensioner insisted that she’s not among those worst off, she is mindful not to strain her savings.
“People have changed their eating habits. You eat different kinds of food nowadays, to make ends meet,” Orberg said.
Red Cross officials say new groups of people now need help.
“Previously we mostly saw people living on the true margins of society,” the secretary general of the Swedish Red Cross, Martin Arnlov, told AFP.
“Now that has changed. It’s also families with children, elderly people, people who are on sick leave, all are struggling.”
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