Kingdom of Sweden, commonly known as Sweden, is one of the Scandinavians country located in Northern Europe. Its official language is Swedish and the county is ranked to be third largest in the European Union (EU) according to the area, with a population of just 9.6 million in total. CARL XVI GUSTAF is the present King of Sweden with the acting Prime Minister Fredrik Reindeldt. Stockholm is the capital and the biggest metropolitan city, followed by Gothenburg and Malmö respectively. It’s currency is Swedish Kronor (SEK) with the current conversion rate against USD to be at 1 USD = 6.58164 SEK (XE). Sweden constitutes of constitutional monarchy along with a parliamentary democracy form of government and holds the status of an advance-developed country. Up till 2013, the country sustained extremely sophisticated figures of total Gross Domestic Product ($393.774 billion) and Income per Capita ($40,870) (United Nations).
The foundation of today’s Sweden was laid in 1397 after the formation of Kalmar Union and later by the integration of the country by King Gustav Vasa in 16th century. Then later in 17th it expanded its borders but in 18th most of the acquired land was handed back. Sweden struck a personal union agreement with Norway in 1814, which ended in 1905. After 1814, Sweden has been at harmony, implementing a non-aligned foreign policy in peacetime and detachment from any war.
According to a report by World Economic Forum in 2012, Sweden was declared the fourth-most competitive country in the world. From the sources of United Nations, Sweden is declared to have the third-lowest infant mortality rate in the world and it also has a Gini coefficient of 0.56, which is ranked one of the lowest amongst all the developing countries. Owing to this statistics Sweden was declared as one of the most equal countries based on income. Sweden comprises of diverse cultural and ethnic groups. Swedes form the basic chunk of the population but its friendly environment has attracted numerous immigrants to the country. There are round about 1.33 million foreign-born residents in Sweden, equivalent to 14.3% of the total population. Amongst these, 859,000 (9.2%) were born outside the EU and 477,000 (5.1%) were born in another EU member state (Eurostat 2010).
Sweden has a free trade policy, which has helped its economy to flourish enormously. With leading the world in innovation, Sweden also has extremely skilled labor force, high levels of consumerism, sophisticated business practices and candidness towards international trade with a steady economy. According to Swedish Trade and Invest Council, the most important export industries are Mechanical engineering, automotive, information and communication technology, pulp & paper, power generation, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, transport services and tourism. Its five major exports are Refined Petroleum (6.1%); Telephones (5.3%); Packaged Medicaments (4.4%); Cars (3.5%), and Vehicle Parts (3.3%). Sweden’s major exports partner comprise of Germany (9.9%); Denmark (6.9%); Norway (6.9%); United Kingdom (6.7%), and United States (6.3%) (Observatory of Economic Complexity 2013).
For the year 2014, Sweden’s inflation rate is recorded to be at -0.60% (Trading Economics). The reports on Sweden’s inflation rate are carried out by the Statistics Sweden. It was averaged to be at 3.86% from 1980 until present, with the highest figure recorded to be at 15.50% in 1980 and lowest at -1.60% in 2009. Since 1995 the RiksBank of Sweden has set the inflation target as keeping the yearly increase in the CPI at 2%.
Works Cited
"Export Statistics 2012." Swedish Trade and Invest Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <http://www.business-sweden.se/en/about-us/Press-Room/Statistics-and-Analysis/Export-Statistics/Export-statistics-2012/>.
"The Inflation Target." Riksbanken. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <http://www.riksbank.se/en/Monetary-policy/Inflation/Adoption-of-the-inflation-target/>.
"OEC: Sweden (SWE) Profile of Exports, Imports and Trade Partners." The Observatory of Economic Complexity. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. <http://atlas.media.mit.edu/profile/country/swe/>.
"Statistics." Eurostat. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. <http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/search_database>.
"TRADING ECONOMICS | 300.000 INDICATORS FROM 196 COUNTRIES." TRADING ECONOMICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <http://www.tradingeconomics.com/>.
"United Nations Statistics Division- Economic Statistics." United Nations Statistics Division. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <https://unstats.un.org/unsd/economic_main.htm>.
"World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012." The World Economic Forum. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2012>.
