Ireland gets Swedish backing in corporation tax row

SWEDEN’S finance minister Anders Borg has come out in favour of low corporation tax rates, saying raising them would be dangerous for the Swedish industry.

His country is not in the eurozone but he said he will decline to sign up to the Competitiveness Pact at next week’s summit. All the euro area states are expected to agree to the pact and a number of others, including Denmark will also adopt it.

The pressure on Ireland to raise its corporation tax rate is expected to heighten on Monday at the euro area ministers meeting, called to finalise a range of issues for the summit at the end of the week.