Economy - overview:
The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of welfare capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and government intervention. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector (through large-scale state enterprises). The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals - and is highly dependent on its oil production and international oil prices; in 1999, oil and gas accounted for 35% of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia export more oil than Norway. Norway opted to stay out of the EU during a referendum in November 1994. Growth picked up in 2000 to 2.7%, compared with the meager 0.8% of 1999, but fell back to 1.3% in 2001. High oil prices helped the economy in 2002 in face of the sluggish world economy. The government has moved ahead with privatization. With arguably the highest quality of life worldwide, Norwegians still worry about that time in the next two decades when the oil and gas begin to run out. Accordingly, Norway has been saving its oil-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund, which is invested abroad and now is valued at more than $43 billion.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $143 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
1.6% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $31,800 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 1.9%
industry: 30.8%
services: 67.3% (2000)
Population below poverty line:
NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 4.1%
highest 10%: 21.8% (1995)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
25.8 (1995)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.3% (2001 est.)
Labor force:
2.4 million (2000 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
services 74%, industry 22%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 4% (1995)
Unemployment rate:
3.9% (2002 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $71.7 billion
expenditures: $57.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)
Industries:
petroleum and gas, food processing, shipbuilding, pulp and paper products, metals, chemicals, timber, mining, textiles, fishing
Industrial production growth rate:
1.2% (2002 est.)
Electricity - production:
120.1 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 0.4%
hydro: 99.3%
other: 0.3% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
115.3 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
7.162 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
10.76 billion kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
3.408 million bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
171,100 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
3.466 million bbl/day (2001)
Oil - imports:
88,870 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - proved reserves:
9.859 billion bbl (January 2002 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
1.716 trillion cu m (January 2002 est.)
Agriculture - products:
barley, wheat, potatoes; pork, beef, veal, milk; fish
Exports:
$68.2 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
petroleum and petroleum products, machinery and equipment, metals, chemicals, ships, fish
Exports - partners:
EU 76.8% (UK 19.8%, France 11.8%, Germany 11.6%, Netherlands 10.2%, Sweden 7.9%), US 7.9% (2001)
Imports:
$37.3 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals, foodstuffs
Imports - partners:
EU 66.5% (Sweden 15.5%, Germany 12.8%, UK 7.8%, Denmark 7.2%, France 5.2%), US 7.0% (2001)
Debt - external:
$0 (Norway is a net external creditor)
Economic aid - donor:
ODA, $1.4 billion (1998)
Currency:
Norwegian krone (NOK)
Currency code:
NOK
Exchange rates:
Norwegian kroner per US dollar - 7.9838 (2002), 8.9917 (2001), 8.8018 (2000), 7.7992 (1999), 7.5451 (1998)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
NOTE: The information regarding Norway on this page is re-published from the 2003 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Guinea Geography 2003 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Norway Economy 2003 should be addressed to the CIA.
