Sweden is renowned for its incredible social system. This has drawn record numbers of refugees seeking asylum to the Scandinavian nation. In 2015, 163,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, more than in any other member nation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2013 and 2014, another 100,000 came across the country’s borders.
The Swedish government will decline thousands of refugee applications and deport up to 80,000 people—of the 160,000 refugees the country originally accepted—that sought asylum in 2015. Sweden is more welcoming to migrants than any other nation in Europe and provides new arrivals with social services that include language courses.
Recent evidence suggests that the economy in Sweden will continue to pick up the pace throughout 2014 and 2015. In the second quarter, Sweden’s GDP grew by approximately 0.7%, significantly more than the 0.3% that had been predicted by analysts earlier in the year. Experts believe that the Swedish economy will see a serious recovery during 2015; however there are comments that the risk of slowing global growth could eventually have an impact.
Sweden’s over-reliance on exports to the eurozone has turned the country from the best-performing economy in the Scandinavia region to the worst, claimed a report by Bloomberg on Thursday.
The largest economy in Scandinavia have been particularly vulnerable from the eurozone debt crisis as more than 70 percent of its exports are sent to the region, with many manufacturing jobs depending on exports.
For over 200 years, Sweden has been a neutral country, one that is known for being peaceful and offering a high standard of living with a balance of extensive welfare benefits and high-technology capitalism. Doing excellent on its own, the Swedish government rejected membership to the European Union in 2003, concerned it would change the solid economic structure. This country’s trade is based primarily on timber, hydropower, and iron and for industrial output, about 90% comes from privately owned firms.
