Aided by peace and neutrality for the whole of the 20th century, Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits. It has a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external communications, and a highly skilled labor force. In September 2003, Swedish voters turned down entry into the euro system concerned about the impact on the economy and sovereignty. Timber, hydropower, and iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented toward foreign trade. Privately owned firms account for vast majority of industrial output, of which the engineering sector accounts for about 50% of output and exports. Agriculture accounts for little more than 1% of GDP and of employment. Until 2008, Sweden was in the midst of a sustained economic upswing, boosted by increased domestic demand and strong exports. This, and robust finances, offered the center-right government considerable scope to implement its reform program aimed at increasing employment, reducing welfare dependence, and streamlining the state's role in the economy. Despite strong finances and underlying fundamentals, the Swedish economy slid into recession in the third quarter of 2008 and the contraction continued in 2009 as deteriorating global conditions reduced export demand and consumption. Strong exports of commodities and a return to profitability by Sweden's banking sector drove a rebound in 2010, but growth slipped in 2013, as a result of continued economic weakness in the EU - Sweden’s main export market.


GDP (purchasing power parity):
country comparison to the world: 35

GDP (official exchange rate):


GDP - composition, by sector of origin:
agriculture:2%

barley, wheat, sugar beets; meat, milk


Industries:


Unemployment rate:
country comparison to the world: 90

Population below poverty line:


Distribution of family income - Gini index:
country comparison to the world: 141

51.4% of GDP (2013 est.)

-2% of GDP (2013 est.)

41.5% of GDP (2013 est.)

calendar year


Inflation rate (consumer prices):
country comparison to the world: 7

Central bank discount rate:
country comparison to the world: 138

Commercial bank prime lending rate:
country comparison to the world: 163

Stock of narrow money:
country comparison to the world: 18

Stock of broad money:
country comparison to the world: 28

Stock of domestic credit:
country comparison to the world: 19

Market value of publicly traded shares:

148.7 billion kWh (2011 est.)

136 billion kWh (2010 est.)

31.28 billion kWh (2012 est.)

11.68 billion kWh (2012 est.)

36.51 million kW (2010 est.)

13% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

24.6% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

45.5% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

16.6% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

11,270 bbl/day (2012 est.)

0 bbl/day (2010 est.)

398,100 bbl/day (2010 est.)

0 bbl (1 January 2013 est.)

419,400 bbl/day (2010 est.)

316,000 bbl/day (2011 est.)

261,700 bbl/day (2010 est.)

187,300 bbl/day (2010 est.)

0 cu m (2011 est.)

1.53 billion cu m (2010 est.)

0 cu m (2011 est.)

1.129 billion cu m (2012 est.)

0 cu m (1 January 2013 est.)

53.15 million Mt (2011 est.)

4.321 million (2012)

11.643 million (2012)

general assessment:highly developed telecommunications infrastructure; ranked among leading countries for fixed-line, mobile-cellular, Internet and broadband penetration

publicly owned TV broadcaster operates 2 terrestrial networks plus regional stations; multiple privately owned TV broadcasters operating nationally, regionally, and locally; about 50 local TV stations; widespread access to pan-Nordic and international broadcasters through multi-channel cable and satellite TV; publicly owned radio broadcaster operates 3 national stations and a network of 25 regional channels; roughly 100 privately owned local radio stations with some consolidating into near national networks; an estimated 900 community and neighborhood radio stations broadcast intermittently (2008)


Internet country code:

231 (2013)

2,052 km (2010)

1.18% of GDP (2012)

The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $49,800. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to enter their rivals' home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets. US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a 'two-tier labor market' in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. Since 1996, dividends and capital gains have grown faster than wages or any other category of after-tax income. Imported oil accounts for nearly 55% of US consumption. Crude oil prices doubled between 2001 and 2006, the year home prices peaked; higher gasoline prices ate into consumers' budgets and many individuals fell behind in their mortgage payments. Oil prices climbed another 50% between 2006 and 2008, and bank foreclosures more than doubled in the same period. Besides dampening the housing market, soaring oil prices caused a drop in the value of the dollar and a deterioration in the US merchandise trade deficit, which peaked at $840 billion in 2008. The sub-prime mortgage crisis, falling home prices, investment bank failures, tight credit, and the global economic downturn pushed the United States into a recession by mid-2008. GDP contracted until the third quarter of 2009, making this the deepest and longest downturn since the Great Depression. To help stabilize financial markets, in October 2008 the US Congress established a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The government used some of these funds to purchase equity in US banks and industrial corporations, much of which had been returned to the government by early 2011. In January 2009 the US Congress passed and President Barack OBAMA signed a bill providing an additional $787 billion fiscal stimulus to be used over 10 years - two-thirds on additional spending and one-third on tax cuts - to create jobs and to help the economy recover. In 2010 and 2011, the federal budget deficit reached nearly 9% of GDP. In 2012 the federal government reduced the growth of spending and the deficit shrank to 7.6% of GDP. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required major shifts in national resources from civilian to military purposes and contributed to the growth of the budget deficit and public debt. Through 2011, the direct costs of the wars totaled nearly $900 billion, according to US government figures. US revenues from taxes and other sources are lower, as a percentage of GDP, than those of most other countries. In March 2010, President OBAMA signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a health insurance reform that was designed to extend coverage to an additional 32 million American citizens by 2016, through private health insurance for the general population and Medicaid for the impoverished. Total spending on health care - public plus private - rose from 9.0% of GDP in 1980 to 17.9% in 2010. In July 2010, the president signed the DODD-FRANK Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a law designed to promote financial stability by protecting consumers from financial abuses, ending taxpayer bailouts of financial firms, dealing with troubled banks that are 'too big to fail,' and improving accountability and transparency in the financial system - in particular, by requiring certain financial derivatives to be traded in markets that are subject to government regulation and oversight. In December 2012, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) announced plans to purchase $85 billion per month of mortgage-backed and Treasury securities in an effort to hold down long-term interest rates, and to keep short term rates near zero until unemployment drops below 6.5% or inflation rises above 2.5%. In late 2013, the Fed announced that it would begin scaling back long-term bond purchases to $75 billion per month in January 2014 and reduce them further as conditions warranted; the Fed, however, would keep short-term rates near zero so long as unemployment and inflation had not crossed the previously stated thresholds. Long-term problems include stagnation of wages for lower-income families, inadequate investment in deteriorating infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, energy shortages, and sizable current account and budget deficits.


GDP (purchasing power parity):
country comparison to the world: 1

GDP (official exchange rate):


GDP - composition, by sector of origin:
agriculture:1.1%

wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products


Industries:

7.3% (2013 est.)

15.1% (2010 est.)


Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%:2%

45 (2007)

17% of GDP

-4% of GDP (2013 est.)

71.8% of GDP (2013 est.)

1 October - 30 September


Inflation rate (consumer prices):
country comparison to the world: 40

Central bank discount rate:
country comparison to the world: 137

Commercial bank prime lending rate:
country comparison to the world: 167

Stock of narrow money:
country comparison to the world: 4

Stock of broad money:
country comparison to the world: 3

Stock of domestic credit:
country comparison to the world: 2

Market value of publicly traded shares:

4.099 trillion kWh (2011 est.)

3.886 trillion kWh (2010 est.)

12 billion kWh (2012 est.)

59.26 billion kWh (2012 est.)

1.039 billion kW (2010 est.)

75.3% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

9.7% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

7.6% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

5.3% of total installed capacity (2010 est.)

11.11 million bbl/day (2012 est.)

41,640 bbl/day (2010 est.)

9.213 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

20.68 billion bbl (1 January 2013 est.)

18.45 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

18.84 million bbl/day (2011 est.)

2.311 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

2.58 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

681.4 billion cu m (2012 est.)

689.9 billion cu m (2011 est.)

45.84 billion cu m (2012 est.)

88.77 billion cu m (2012 est.)

9.459 trillion cu m (1 January 2012 est.)

5.491 billion Mt (2011 est.)

139 million (2012)

310 million (2012)

general assessment:a large, technologically advanced, multipurpose communications system

4 major terrestrial TV networks with affiliate stations throughout the country, plus cable and satellite networks, independent stations, and a limited public broadcasting sector that is largely supported by private grants; overall, thousands of TV stations broadcasting; multiple national radio networks with many affiliate stations; while most stations are commercial, National Public Radio (NPR) has a network of some 600 member stations; satellite radio available; overall, nearly 15,000 radio stations operating (2008)


Internet country code:

13,513 (2013)

41,009 km (19,312 km used for commerce; Saint Lawrence Seaway of 3,769 km, including the Saint Lawrence River of 3,058 km, is shared with Canada) (2012)

4.35% of GDP (2012)