Norway is an exceptional country, fiscally speaking.
As a coda to the American exceptionalism debate, here's a country that really is exceptional, fiscally speaking:
Scanning the latest issueâ??s budget-balance forecasts, it is striking that of the forty-two large economies described, all but one are likely to produce budget deficits in 2010. The exception: Norway, whose federal budget is expected this year to produce a surplus equivalent to 10.5 per cent of Norwegian GDP. This was enough to cause me to scan the rest of the countryâ??s indicators. Current account balance, as a percentage of GDP: Plus 15.8 per cent. Trade balance, latest twelve months, in billions of dollars: 53.2. Unemployment rate: 3.3 percent. Kind of obnoxious, I would say. It goes on: Norway ranks first in the world in per-capita government aid to poorer countries, sixth in per-capita private giving, and according to an index assembled by the Center for Government that uses a blend of measures to judge which countries display the greatest commitment to global development, Norway is tied for third, with the Netherlands. Presumably it burns them that Sweden and Denmark are numbers one and two, even though they lack big fat budget surpluses.
That's via Steve Coll.
