The Swedish government revised down its growth forecasts and increased pressure on banks to join the guarantee scheme for new lending. Finance minister Borg said today that the best case scenario for Sweden would be GDP growth of 0.1% next year, while in the worst case, the economy would contract by 1.2%. For 2010, the government looks for growth of 1.4-2.0%. In the autumn budget, the government estimated growth of 1.3% next year and 3.1% in 2010. Unemployment is expected to rise to as much as 7.8% next year and to 9.2% in 2010 given the worst case scenario and Borg expects the repo rate to bottom at around 2.00-2.25%, versus 3.75% today. Meanwhile, the government is considering unspecified measures to get commercial banks to join its state-sponsored new lending guarantee scheme, which so far only Swedbank has signed up to.