Refugee Crisis Shapes Swedish Budget as More Seen as Not Enough

Sweden’s government presented an expansionary budget and predicted finances will return to balance in 2018 amid increased spending to absorb a record inflow of refugees over the past two years.

Almost half the extra spending presented on Tuesday by Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson has been earmarked for municipalities that are on the front-line for taking care of the flood of refugees from Syria and other nations. But local authorities say the government’s extra support underestimates the needs in coming years, and warn that they will need to cut costs and raise taxes.