GDP

GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in a country during one year. Even though GDP is not a perfect measure it gives an idea of how wealthy a country is. It is also the most common way of describing economic growth. The definition of economic growth is in fact an increase of GDP.

During the 1970s and the 1980s, Sweden had a lower GDP growth than the average both within the EU and within the OECD area. The recession in Sweden in the beginning of the 1990s led to a low mark regarding economic growth as the GDP actually fell during three years. Between 1990 and 1993, GDP fell by almost 4 percent in terms of volume. After 1993, the growth rate in Sweden accelerated again and matched the growth rate of the OECD. During 1998-2000, the volume growth rate was actually higher than in comparable countries, at just over 4 percent per year.

Overall, Sweden recovered and, during the period 1970-2008, the Swedish economy grew 122 percent, which is about 30 percentage points lower than the EU-15 and 75 percentage points lower than the OECD area.

After years of economic growth, the Swedish economy, as the rest of the developed world, was again affected by a sharp economic downturn because of the IT-crash in the beginning of 2000. The average growth rate between 2001 and 2003 was only 1,5 percent per year. The crisis was followed, however, by a economic boom. World trade increased sharply, which resulted in rapid export growth for Sweden. The Swedish GDP growth reached above 4 percent in both 2004 and 2006. However, the last years the GDP growth has slowed down due to the financial crisis and the downturn in the whole economy.

GDP growth at market prices by volume

Annual percentage change

Download table to Excel