Editing Economy of Denmark (section)

==Foreign trade==

As a [[small open economy]], Denmark is very dependent on its foreign trade. In 2017, the value of total exports of goods and services made up 55% of GDP, whereas the value of total imports amounted to 47% of GDP. Trade in goods made up slightly more than 60% of both exports and imports, and trade in services the remaining close to 40%.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.statistikbanken.dk/nan1 |website=StatBank Denmark |title=Table NAN1: Demand and supply by transaction and price unit |access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref>

Machinery, chemicals and related products like medicine and agricultural products were the largest groups of export goods in 2017.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.statistikbanken.dk/uhv4 |website=StatBank Denmark |title=Table UHV4: Total external trade by imports and exports, main SITC groups and country |access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref> Service exports were dominated by freight sea transport services from the Danish [[merchant navy]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.statistikbanken.dk/uhtp |website=StatBank Denmark |title=Table UHTP: International trade in services, quarterly by imports and exports, items and time |access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref> Most of Denmark's most important trading partners are neighbouring countries. The five main importers of Danish goods and services in 2017 were Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Norway. The five countries from which Denmark imported most goods and services in 2017 were Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, China and United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.statistikbanken.dk/uhv2 |website=StatBank Denmark |title=Table UHV2: Total external trade by imports and exports, seasonal adjustment and country |access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref>

After having almost consistently an external [[balance of payments]] [[Current account (balance of payments)|current account]] deficit since the beginning of the 1960s, Denmark has maintained a surplus on its BOP current account for every year since 1990, with the single exception of 1998. In 2017, the current account surplus amounted to approximately 8% of GDP.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=teibp051&plugin=1|website=Eurostat |title=Balance of payments, current account, quarterly data – % of GDP |access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref> Consequently, Denmark has changed from a net debtor to a net creditor country. By 1 July 2018, the net foreign wealth or [[net international investment position]] of Denmark was equal to 64.6% of GDP, Denmark thus having the largest net foreign wealth relative to GDP of any EU country.<ref name="niip">{{cite web| url = https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-datasets/-/TIPSII40|website=Eurostat |title=Net international investment position – quarterly data, % of GDP |date=24 October 2018 |access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref>

As the annual current account is equal to the value of domestic saving minus total domestic investment, the change from a structural deficit to a structural surplus is due to changes in these two national account components. In particular, the Danish national saving rate in financial assets increased by 11 per cent of GDP from 1980 to 2015. Two main reasons for this large change in domestic saving behaviour were the growing importance of large-scale compulsory pension schemes and several Danish fiscal policy reforms during the period which considerably decreased [[tax deduction]]s of household [[interest expense]], thus reducing the tax subsidy to [[private debt]].<ref name=DEC>{{cite web| url = https://dors.dk/vismandsrapporter/oekonomi-miljoe-2017| title = Danish Economic Council: Economy and the Environment 2017. English Summary, p. 341.| date = 23 February 2017}}</ref>