Today’s big topic: We shop as cheaply as possible at the supermarket – and then we go out and buy a new car
What’s happening?
This year was supposed to be the one when we would finally start spending a bit more again on good, old-fashioned consumption.
In fact, rising household spending was expected to rescue the Danish economy. The now-departed government had figured that Trump’s tariff threats made it highly uncertain whether we could keep getting richer by selling more abroad.
The reason there was still cause for optimism, then, was the expectation that Danes would substantially ramp up their spending. That, roughly speaking, we ourselves would buy the goods that other countries would no longer buy as tariffs began to weigh on them. In that way, weaker exports would be offset by a growing appetite to spend at home.
The rise in household consumption that was supposed to offset the export decline now looks somewhat hobbled.
There are no official figures yet for household consumption at the start of the year. But looking at Danes’ spending on payment cards, there are no signs of a spending spree, according to data from Danske Bank. Consumption has grown a modest 2.1 percent in the first three months of the year, and it remains very low relative to how much Danes earn, says Las Olsen, chief economist at Danske Bank.
Why it matters!
It is even more sluggish if you look only at Danes’ grocery purchases. Adjusted for inflation, they have been roughly at the same level in the first three months of the year as last year. And that, to be clear, was a truly low level.
That is 12 percent lower than at the same time in 2019 and fully 25 percent lower than in 2021. The reason is that grocery consumption has plunged since inflation took off in 2021.
After Danes’ big consumption binge in the 2000s ended in a massive financial crisis, the majority pulled back, spending less and less of their money on pleasures and putting more and more into the piggy bank.
By contrast, the housing and car markets are humming. Those are typically two of the first things to be hit when consumers turn pessimistic about the future. »So we’re saving and buying discount when we go to the supermarket, but at the same time we’re also buying a new car. That’s highly unusual«, says Las Olsen.
The paradoxical development probably reflects that while some are cutting back sharply, others are doing just fine, he says.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– New study surprises: Chatbots put pressure on high-performing students
In several published studies and in conversations among instructors, there is often talk of a »democratizing effect,« says Carsten Bergenholtz. That artificial intelligence, broadly speaking, can raise all students’ performance, with the weakest students benefiting the most.
He decided to test whether taht was really true by setting up an experiment. About 140 students were placed in an exam-like situation. They were presented with a case and asked a question they had to answer in writing under time pressure. First, without any aids. The researchers used that portion to assess the students’ general academic level. Then the students were asked to solve a similar task, but this time they were randomly assigned. Some were given access to a chatbot as a tool; others were not.
Nearly everyone who was given access to a chatbot used it, and, sure enough, the weaker students’ answers improved compared with what they produced when they worked without aids.
But the strongest students did worse when they used artificial intelligence.
Read the full article here.
–Mette Frederiksen signals new negotiations on Monday and Wednesday
On the eve of a new week, Socialdemokratiet (S) said in a press release that the acting prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, will meet with political parties on Monday and Wednesday to try to lay the groundwork for a new government. No details were provided about who has been invited to Marienborg or what the invitees are expected to discuss.
It has now been 25 days since the general election, after which Mette Frederiksen was tasked, as the Queen’s appointed negotiator, with exploring the formation of a government that includes SF and Radikale Venstre (RV).
– New route between Karup and Copenhagen launches with three daily flights
On Monday, a new domestic route opens between Midtjylland Karup Airport and Copenhagen Airport. The route is operated by the South Jutland-based airline Alsie Express. According to the company’s website, the first departure took off Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. The plan calls for three daily departures on weekdays and a single Sunday flight. The route was most recently operated by the Dutch carrier AIS Airlines, which ran its last departure from Karup on June 27, 2025.
Talk of town: Who is the biggest star in the history of Danish sports?
Olympics in Tokyo. Men’s singles badminton final: Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen defeats China’s Chen Long to win gold.
When an athlete as great as Viktor Axelsen ends his career, it is only natural to open the discussion of where he belongs in any ranking of the biggest names in Danish sporting history.
It is an endlessly interesting debate with purely individual and subjective conclusions, because there is no answer key that can objectively measure sports and achievements against one another.
In elite sport, the one common denominator is that, more than anything else, it is about winning, so championships and a haul of medals must count as meaningful factors, with the Olympics as the biggest prize, followed by world championships and European championships. But a sport’s global reach and its historical level of competition, of course, also matter in this assessment of performances across 100 years, as reflected in this personal top 30 of Denmark’s greatest sports figures.
And the question from here has to be: If Viktor Axelsen does not now stand as the greatest in Danish sports history, who on earth would?
Find Politiken’s top 30 here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.