Many Swedes want new euro vote, survey shows

STOCKHOLM May 19 (Reuters) - A slim majority of Swedes, apparently influenced by the global financial crisis, want a new vote on whether Sweden should join the euro zone, a survey published on Tuesday showed.

Sweden voted against joining the euro in 1993, but the world financial crisis has increased its interest in the single currency and also that of other countries, including neighbour Denmark.

A poll sponsored by the pro-euro Liberal party, a member of Sweden's ruling coalition, showed 51 percent of respondents would like to have a new chance to vote on the single currency. Forty-four percent of the 1,000 respondents were against.

Of those who wanted a new test of support for the euro, 39 percent said a vote should be held within a year and 36 percent said within two years.

Euro membership is seen by some as a way of preventing big currency swings that can increase economic volatility.

However, critics of the single currency say that an interest rate set centrally by the European Central Bank is not suitable to all euro zone members and means countries can not react flexibly to different economic conditions.

During the financial crisis Sweden has cut rates much faster than the ECB. Sweden's key interest rate is at a record low of 0.5 percent. The ECB's key rate is at 1.0 percent.

A separate poll in April conducted for public television was the first since the referendum to show the euro "yes" camp in a majority in Sweden, a member of the European Union since 1995.

However, a vote soon remains unlikely.

The Moderate Party, the biggest of four parties making up the ruling alliance, have said they will not hold a referendum in the current mandate period, which runs to September 2010.

Even if the alliance wins another four-year term, the Moderates are unwilling to hold another vote and Sweden's biggest opposition party, the Social Democrats, have ruled out a referendum until after 2014 if they win next year.

The Danes, who rejected joining the euro in 2000, have also been warming to the single currency. They are unlikely to hold another vote before 2011, though the centre-right minority government is in favour of joining. [nLI449986]

Iceland, which has seen its economy devastated by the financial crisis, is also looking at whether to join the euro. [nLP378063]