This has resulted in an economy with periods of strong growth, considerable inflation, unemployment problems and extreme dependence on capital inflow from the Kingdom Government.

Early hopes of mineral or agricultural wealth were dashed, and open trade proved a failure owing to other nations' better quality, lower priced goods and hostility.

[13] Kale, lettuce, and other vegetables were successfully introduced, but repeated attempts to cultivate wheat or clover failed throughout Greenland, limiting the ability to raise European livestock.

Repeated attempts to open trade were opposed on both commercial and humanitarian grounds, although minor reforms in the 1850s and 60s lowered the prices charged to the natives for "luxuries" like sugar and coffee; transferred more of the KGH's profits to local communities; and granted the important Ivigtut cryolite concession to a separate company.

Climate change, apparent since the 1920s, disrupted traditional Kalaallit life as the milder weather reduced the island's seal populations but filled the waters offshore with cod.

The KGH monopolies were ended in 1950; Greenland was made an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953 and Home Rule granted in 1979.

The program was intended to reduce costs, improve access to education and health care, and provide workers for modernized cod fisheries, which were growing rapidly at the time.

Greenland left the European Economic Community in February 1985,[16] principally due to EEC policies on fishing and sealskin.

Following the closure of the Maarmorilik lead and zinc mine in 1990 and the collapse of the cod fisheries amid colder ocean currents, Greenland faced foreign trade deficits and a shrinking economy, but it has been growing since 1993.

[18] To reduce its dependence on Denmark and prepare for independence, a longstanding priority of the Greenlandic government is increasing United States interest in the island; it seeks more American tourists, business and mining investment, and customers for its fish.

As such, the only seal tannery in the country – Great Greenland in Qaqortoq – is heavily subsidized by the government[20] to maintain the livelihood of smaller communities which are economically dependent on the hunt.

Because the muskoxen's natural range favors the protected Northeast Greenland National Park, it is a less common object of hunting than in the past.

[25] Ivigtut used to be the world's premier source of natural cryolite, an important mineral in aluminum extraction, but the commercially viable reserves were depleted in the 1980s.

The CEO of Nunaminerals, which went bankrupt in 2015 after 17 years, said that unlike similar mineral deposits elsewhere, Greenland projects are greenfield land and need new roads and power plants as well as the mine.

[30][31][32] While the Greenland Home Rule Government has primary sovereignty over mineral deposits on the mainland,[33] oil resources are within the domain of the Danish exclusive economic zone.

Since the success of the 1993 Buksefjord dam, – whose distribution path to Nuuk includes the Ameralik Span – the long-term policy of the Greenland government is to produce the island's electricity from renewable domestic sources.

Like many aspects of the economy, this slowed dramatically in 2020, and into 2021, due to restrictions required as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;[40] one source describes it as being the "biggest economic victim of the coronavirus".

[42] Agriculture is of little importance in the economy but due to climate change – in southern Greenland, the growing season averages about three weeks longer than a decade ago[43] – which has enabled expanded production of existing crops[clarification needed].

Similarly, it has enabled new crops like apples, strawberries,[44] broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots[43] to be grown and for the cultivated areas of the country to be extended[45] although even now only about 1% of Greenland is considered arable.

In 2008, there was still a strong herd at the Isortoq Reindeer Station[52] maintained by the Icelander Stefán Magnússon and Norwegian Ole Kristiansen.