Some quietly successful countries

While a lot of attention is paid to economically-troubled countries like Greece, Ireland and even America, little mention is made of the countries that are doing well.

Such nations are quietly purring along with reasonable growth rates, low unemployment and healthy governments.

They are not the new economic rock stars like China and Brazil. They are the super consistent European nations like the Netherlands and Austria that have fine-tuned the art of economic performance.

The Netherlands

Few countries have weathered the global economic crisis as well as the Dutch. Having hovered around 3.5% for the past two-years, their unemployment rate is still now only 4.4% – the lowest in the 27-member European Union.

And they are growing at nearly 2% thanks to their large export sector. Their current-account surplus (exports minus imports) for this year is 6.2% of GDP – the second-largest in the EU just behind Sweden.

For a small country, the Netherlands has an impressive list of home-grown multinational companies that drive these exports.

Some of the largest include Philips (electronics), AkzoNobel (paints and chemicals), Shell (petroleum), Unilever (consumer products), ING, ABN Amro and Rabobank (banking) and Heineken (beer).

This expertise has been driven by its strong education system. Along with Japan, South Korea and the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands has among the highest percentage of people aged between 25-34 yrs with post-school qualifications.

This improves people’s incomes, the government’s tax revenues, and the country’s business competitiveness.

Austria

Another quiet achiever is Austria. Their unemployment rate is only 4.5%, just behind the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, their economic growth reached 8.9% in the second quarter of this year and 10% in the third.

This has been in a large part thanks to the industrial export boom in Germany – Austria’s main trading partner – which in turn was boosted by China’s massive stimulus spending on infrastructure.

Like Germany, Austria produces a lot of the high-tech machinery that emerging markets require, and cannot produce themselves with cheap, but unskilled labour.

Furthermore, given its geographic location, the country has become a major banking and legal services provider for a lot of emerging Eastern European countries which have recently benefitted from European Union subsidies and high investment.

Austria also shares Germany’s cooperative labour culture when it comes to negotiations between workers and employers – a practice that has been a stabilising force throughout the economic downturn.

Finland

Like its Nordic neighbours, Finland has continued to benefit from the wealth redistribution system that keeps unemployment low and living standards high.

It’s also one of only two countries (along with Luxembourg) in the 16-nation euro-currency bloc that have kept within the currency’s strict limits on government budget deficits (3% of GDP) and debt (60% of GDP).

Finland has 2.2% and 44% respectively – a tremendous balance sheet given the problems faced by other euro-zone governments.

The country also ranks highly in education, research and development spending and several high-tech industries.

The most notable high-tech company is Nokia, by far Finland’s largest, accounting for 3% of the country’s GDP, a quarter of its exports and nearly a third of the value of the stock exchange.

And despite announcing in July that its profits had declined 40%, largely as a result of the inroads made by Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry in the mobile phone market, it is believed to be making a comeback by releasing a series of new Smartphones.

Other countries

There are other countries that are in great shape too. Norway heads up the list on just about every measure in the world and also has one of the lowest unemployment rates at 3.3%.

Luxembourg, with US$78,000, has the highest GDP (economic output) per person in the world – a measure of individual wealth. It also has high economic growth and employment, and a low government deficit (0.7%) and debt (14%).

But Luxembourg, like Switzerland, is a banking haven and generally only lets in immigrants of the wealthy kind, enhancing their economic indicators.

Norway is rich in oil and gas (as are other petro-states stars like Qatar and Abu Dhabi), and even though it invests most of its oil wealth rather than spending it, the money still plays a big role in protecting the economy in recessionary times.

Therefore, it isn’t fair to hold up these countries as successful economic performers given their clear financial advantages (even though financial advantages still need to be managed well).

But in light of the current dismal performances by some countries, it is worth acknowledging the other less-dramatic but consistent nations to learn a little from their economic success.

By The Casual Truth

Photo – Graben Street in Vienna, Austria