Denmark Economy 2001

Economy - overview: This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy and has a comfortable balance of payments surplus. The center-left coalition government has reduced the formerly high unemployment rate and attained a budget surplus as well as followed the previous government's policies of maintaining low inflation and a stable currency. The coalition has lowered marginal income tax rates and raised environmental taxes thus maintaining overall tax revenues. Problems of bottlenecks, and longer term demographic changes reducing the labor force, are being addressed through labor market reforms. The government has been successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase (a common European currency) of the European Monetary Union (EMU), but Denmark, in a September 2000 referendum, reconfirmed its decision not to join the 11 other EU members in the euro. Even so, the Danish currency remains pegged to the euro.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $136.2 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2.8% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $25,500 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 3%
industry: 25%
services: 72% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 24% (2000 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.9% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 2.856 million (2000 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: services 79%, industry 17%, agriculture 4% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate: 5.3% (2000)

Budget:
revenues: $52.9 billion
expenditures: $51.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $500 million (2001 est.)

Industries: food processing, machinery and equipment, textiles and clothing, chemical products, electronics, construction, furniture, and other wood products, shipbuilding, windmills

Industrial production growth rate: 3% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production: 37.885 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 88.4%
hydro: 0.07%
nuclear: 0%
other: 11.53% (1999)

Electricity - consumption: 32.916 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports: 7.28 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports: 4.963 billion kWh (1999)

Agriculture - products: grain, potatoes, rape, sugar beets; pork and beef, dairy products; fish

Exports: $50.8 billion (f.o.b., 2000)

Exports - commodities: machinery and instruments, meat and meat products, dairy products, fish, chemicals, furniture, ships, windmills

Exports - partners: EU 66.5% (Germany 20.1%, Sweden 11.7%, UK 9.6%, France 5.3%, Netherlands 4.7%), Norway 5.8%, US 5.4% (1999)

Imports: $43.6 billion (f.o.b., 2000)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, raw materials and semimanufactures for industry, chemicals, grain and foodstuffs, consumer goods

Imports - partners: EU 72.1% (Germany 21.6%, Sweden 12.4%, UK 8.0%, Netherlands 8.0%, France 5.8%), Norway 4.2%, US 4.5% (1999)

Debt - external: $21.7 billion (2000)

Economic aid - donor: ODA, $1.63 billion (1999)

Currency: Danish krone (DKK)

Currency code: DKK

Exchange rates: Danish kroner per US dollar - 7.951 (January 2001), 8.083 (2000), 6.976 (1999), 6.701 (1998), 6.604 (1997), 5.799 (1996); note - the Danes rejected the Euro in a 28 September 2000 referendum

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Denmark on this page is re-published from the 2001 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Denmark Economy 2001 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Denmark Economy 2001 should be addressed to the CIA.