Today, Sweden further develops engineering, mine, steel, and pulp industries, which are competitive internationally, as evidenced by companies such as Ericsson, ASEA/ABB, SKF, Alfa Laval, AGA, and Dyno Nobel.

Sweden has achieved a high standard of living under a mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits.

Poverty remained widespread, prompting a large portion of the country to emigrate, mainly to the United States.

Apart from relatively high levels of human capital formation, the result of the Reformation and related government policies, such local democratic traditions were the other asset that made the "catching up" of the Scandinavian countries, including Sweden, possible and this economic rise was probably the most remarkable phenomenon in that region during the nineteenth century.

[35] The postwar boom, that was the continuation of strong inflationary tendencies during the war itself,[35] propelled Sweden to greater economic prosperity.

Beginning in the 1970s and culminating with the deep recession of the early 1990s, Swedish standards of living developed less favorably than many other industrialized countries.

[36] Sweden has had an economic model in the post-World War II era characterized by close cooperation between the government, labour unions, and corporations.

The Swedish economy has extensive and universal social benefits funded by high taxes, close to 50% of GDP.

A restructuring of the tax system, in order to emphasize low inflation combined with an international economic slowdown in the early 1990s, caused the bubble to burst.

In 2007, the United States Federal Reserve noted, "In the early 1970s, Sweden had one of the highest income levels in Europe; today, its lead has all but disappeared...So, even well-managed financial crises don't really have a happy ending".

When the international economic outlook improved combined with a rapid growth in the IT sector, which Sweden was well positioned to capitalize on, the country was able to emerge from the crisis.

[43] Much of the Swedish Model's acclaimed advantages actually had to be viewed as a result of the post WWII special situation, which left Sweden untouched when competitors' economies were comparatively weak.

Timber, hydropower and iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented toward foreign trade.

[47] The 20 largest Sweden-registered companies by turnover as of 2013[update] were Volvo, Ericsson, Vattenfall, Skanska, Hennes & Mauritz, Electrolux, Volvo Personvagnar, Preem, TeliaSonera, Sandvik, ICA, Atlas Copco, Nordea, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, Scania, Securitas, Nordstjernan, SKF, ABB Norden Holding, and Sony Mobile Communications AB.

[48] Sweden's industry is overwhelmingly in public and state control, the most prominent example of this is LKAB, a state-owned mining company, mostly active in the northern part of the country, with the largest noted market share out of all its domestic competitors.

[49] Sweden is a world leader in privatized pensions, and pension-funding problems are small compared to many other Western European countries.

[53] Sweden ranked 9th in the IMD Competitiveness Yearbook 2008, scoring high in private sector efficiency.

The book compiled an index to measure the kind of creativity it claims is most useful to business – talent, technology and tolerance.

The Swedish Riksbank – founded in 1668 and thus making it the oldest central bank in the world – is currently focusing on price stability with its inflation target of 2%.

[57] By 2014, legislators, economists and the IMF were warning of a bubble with residential property prices soaring and the level of personal mortgage debt expanding.

[59] The new, strict budget process with spending ceilings set by the Riksdag, and a constitutional change to an independent Central Bank, have greatly improved policy credibility.

This entails a far more robust system vis-à-vis adverse demographic and economic trends, which should keep the ratio of total pension disbursements to the aggregate wage bill close to 20% in the decades ahead.

[citation needed] The construction sector is well-developed in Sweden, with significant development in the level of sub-contracting within the industry since the 1980s.

In theory, by the rules of the EMU, Sweden is obliged to join, since the country has not obtained exception by any protocol or treaty (as opposed to Denmark and the United Kingdom).

This choice was implemented by exploiting a legal loophole, deliberately staying out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

[62] This move is currently tolerated by the European Central Bank, which however has warned that this would not be the case for newer EU members.

However, some of the people who cannot find work are put away in so-called "labour market political activities", referred to as "AMS-åtgärder".

[67] According to Jan Edling, a former trade-unionist, the actual number of unemployed is far higher, and those figures are being suppressed by both the government and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation.

The average increases in real wages in recent years have been high by historical standards, in large part due to unforeseen price stability.

Thus, while private-sector wages rose by an average annual rate of 3.75% from 1998 to 2000 in Sweden, the comparable increase for the EU area was 1.75%.