Sweden is a small country in northern Europe and is part of Scandinavia. Not everyone knows that just a few decades ago, Sweden was a small, agricultural country, where economic development was never particularly noticeable.

However, with the help of economic and political reforms, the government was able to turn an unremarkable state into a country that honorably ranks 2nd in the world ranking of living standards. This is how the term “Swedish model” of the economy was born, and today it is used by all Scandinavian countries.

The essence of the model is to prevent strong social stratification. This is achieved through high taxes, which, in turn, lead to large social benefits, and the state controls, if not owns, almost all enterprises in the country.

Also, as you know, Sweden is famous for such brands as IKEA, Volvo, Electrolux, Ericsson and H&M. In addition, Sweden is a popular place for developing tech startups such as Skype, Spotify and SoundCloud.

Sweden has a very low level of public debt (< 50%), which is normal, and the country has a positive trade balance (5.2% in 2016), and its economy grew by 4.2% in the same year.

All this led to Sweden taking first place in the ranking of the most business-friendly countries according to FORBES in 2016 for the first time. And in the Doing Business report of 2017, released by the World Bank, the country took 9th place out of 190 countries.

Thus, it can be concluded that the business and investment climate in Sweden is very favorable and high-quality. In recent years, the country has been attracting more and more foreign capital, as can be seen from Table 1.

The inflow of foreign direct investment increased sharply in 2016, reaching almost 20 billion US dollars, compared to 6 billion US dollars in the previous year. Despite the unfavourable international situation, the country maintains a high level of attractiveness for foreign investors due to its multilingual and skilled workforce, very high purchasing power per capita, an economy at the forefront of new technologies and innovations, and its favourable tax regime. The government has taken steps to develop investment support, with a particular focus on key sectors (biotechnology and food processing) and fast-growing markets (the Baltics, India, Brazil, etc.). There are gaps in the food processing sector, as well as in the housing and interiors sectors.