Lego Batman and a regular Lego figure – Denmark’s pride. Photo: Christy Radecic / AP
Denmark has now definitively surpassed Sweden economically – even on the stock exchange. Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk is worth as much as the largest company on the Stockholm Stock Exchange – six times over. But there is still one area where we win over our smaller neighbor.
It’s always fun when things go well for others. Especially for Danes. In Skåne, where I live, Danish is now spoken everywhere. Especially in shops. They often seem happy and a bit giggly, like when you unexpectedly upgrade from economy to business class on a flight.
It’s easy to understand their state of mind. Equipped with their Danish super crowns, Sweden must seem like one big factory outlet. Kind of like when Swedes in the 80s flocked to Poland and threw around newly exchanged zlotys like confetti. A one in Sweden could suddenly feel like the King of Warsaw and splurge without thinking about the cost. All thanks to a favorable exchange rate. The Poles probably looked at us with the same unconditional love that we now regard the damn Danes, sorry, our Danish brothers. Ten years ago, one Danish crown was worth around 1.15 Swedish crowns, this summer the rate has sniffed at 1.60. Going to Copenhagen as a Swede is not fun. Every time the card comes out, the same thought pops into my head: ”should I report this to the police?” 75 SEK for an ice cream or 50 SEK for a bottle of water, it just can’t be right. What are the UN and the Hague Tribunal doing?
It’s even more humiliating because muscle memory tells me that Denmark, unlike Sweden, doesn’t have much to offer. We have IKEA, Spotify, Volvo, H&M. What does Denmark have? Overpriced speakers, watery beer, and Lego?
This is a picture that is, of course, both deeply ignorant and prejudiced. On Wednesday, the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk released its quarterly report, an impressive story. Sales increased by 30 percent and profits reached over SEK 39 billion, or just over SEK 60 billion when converted to the worthless Swedish currency. The company’s obesity medications are selling as fast as a box of donuts at a table full of sugar addicts.
When Novo Nordisk presented new promising results on the obesity drug Wegovy earlier this week, the stock price surged 17 percent. The share price has increased by over 200 percent in just the past three years, and with a market value of a staggering SEK 4,400 billion, roughly the same as Denmark’s GDP, Novo Nordisk is now among the 20 most valuable companies in the world and is challenging luxury goods company LVMH for first place in Europe. SEK 4,400 billion is almost twice the market value of the Swedish-British company AstraZeneca. The largest purely Swedish company on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, Atlas Copco, is worth SEK 690 billion, which is one-sixth of Novo Nordisk’s value. In fact, the company is worth more than the top ten Swedish companies on the stock exchange. Together. Novo Nordisk’s success has contributed to the Copenhagen Stock Exchange outperforming Stockholm, with the index rising 238 percent in the past ten years compared to 112 percent for the Swedish stock market.
But it’s not just on the stock and currency markets that Denmark is excelling in the rivalry.
One way to compare the standard of living between countries is to adjust GDP for purchasing power in each country. That is, how much money is required to buy a certain item. This measure is usually expressed in US dollars. Denmark’s GDP per capita is 15 percent higher than in Sweden, USD 74,000 compared to USD 64,600, according to statistics from the World Bank. Ten years ago, Sweden and Denmark were roughly equal in this league, and 20 years ago Sweden was leading. This year, Denmark is likely to extend its lead. The OECD predicts that the Swedish economy will shrink by 0.3 percent this year, while Denmark’s will grow by 0.7 percent.
Even in Sweden’s flagship discipline of government debt, Denmark is in a good position. It equaled 30 percent of GDP at the end of 2022, compared to 33 percent for Sweden, according to figures from the European Commission. Privately, Danes have a larger fortune than Swedes. According to the Credit Suisse Wealth Report, the average wealth in Denmark is USD 427,000 compared to USD 382,000 in Sweden. Denmark is not a tax haven, quite the opposite. The country has the highest tax burden in the world according to the OECD, 46.9 percent of GDP compared to 42.6 percent in Sweden. Assets are taxed higher in Denmark, where unlike Sweden, there is both property tax, inheritance tax, and gift tax.
But in one area, Sweden surpasses Denmark – inequality. Credit Suisse ranks Sweden as number 12 in the world when it comes to unequal distribution of wealth. Denmark falls far down the list. In Sweden, the richest one percent own 37.6 percent of total assets, compared to 23.8 percent in Denmark. Income inequalities are also greater in Sweden, with a Gini coefficient of 0.33 in 2021 compared to 0.30 in Denmark, according to each country’s statistical agency.
According to the latest Forbes list from earlier this year, Sweden has 39 dollar billionaires, compared to ”only” eight for Denmark. So, Sweden’s economy has fallen behind Denmark’s in recent decades. With one clear exception: things have gone well for the very rich. Fantastic, perhaps, for those who measure success by the number of billionaires. Many others might wonder if there could be a connection.
