Country Overview
Sweden is the most improved country in procurement processes, and its financial markets and funding capacity rank among the best in InfraCompass2020. Its strong credit rating, low government debt and high income per capita, place it in an excellent position to fund infrastructure investment. In addition, the quality of Sweden’s regulatory frameworks, financial markets and permits promote competition among suppliers and encourage private investment. To improve the efficiency of infrastructure investment, Sweden could look to develop a national infrastructure plan and publish a pipeline of future projects.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
60,816 USD
Population
10.5 million persons
Infrastructure quality
84.0 (0-100 best)

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

16
-
75.3
Global Leader
10
-
75.3
Global Leader
6
2
90.5
Global Leader
69
5
31.4
Emerging
18
48
88.4
Top performer
55
7
24.9
Aspiring
8
4
79.5
Global Leader
3
2
78.3
Global Leader

Metric Overview

Strengths

Transparency in public procurement

Sweden’s public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents transparently detail procurement procedures. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition, which can drive value for money.

Summary credit rating

Sweden's institutional strength and high income per capita have helped maintain a AAA credit rating from the major ratings agencies. Sweden's strong credit rating allows the government to borrow at a lower cost to fund investment in infrastructure.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the cost of starting a business in Sweden is 0.5% of income per capita, well below the High Income Countries’ average of 4.7%, easing the entry of new firms.

Transparency in public procurement

Sweden’s public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents transparently detail procurement procedures. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition, which can drive value for money.

Summary credit rating

Sweden's institutional strength and high income per capita have helped maintain a AAA credit rating from the major ratings agencies. Sweden's strong credit rating allows the government to borrow at a lower cost to fund investment in infrastructure.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the cost of starting a business in Sweden is 0.5% of income per capita, well below the High Income Countries’ average of 4.7%, easing the entry of new firms.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

High income country average

Funding capacity:
Summary credit rating

Opportunities to Grow

Published project pipeline

Sweden does not currently have an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Market sounding and/or assessment

According to the World Bank, there is no formal requirement for a market sounding process in the Sweden. Adding one could allow the government to determine if there is an interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Sweden does not have a national agency dedicated to Infrastructure or PPP. The addition of a national agency or PPP unit could help with the development of infrastructure frameworks to aid consistent design and implementation of infrastructure projects.

Published project pipeline

Sweden does not currently have an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Market sounding and/or assessment

According to the World Bank, there is no formal requirement for a market sounding process in the Sweden. Adding one could allow the government to determine if there is an interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Sweden does not have a national agency dedicated to Infrastructure or PPP. The addition of a national agency or PPP unit could help with the development of infrastructure frameworks to aid consistent design and implementation of infrastructure projects.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

High income country average

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Sweden

High Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

78.1 (+0.2)
68.3

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

87.9 (-2.5)
74.3

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

Yes
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

56.7
48.1

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

65.2 (-1.7)
61.9

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

No
-

Sweden

High Income Countries Average

78.1 (+0.2)
68.3
87.9 (-2.5)
74.3
Yes
-
56.7
48.1
65.2 (-1.7)
61.9
No
-

Country Overview Data

Sweden is the most improved country in procurement processes, and its financial markets and funding capacity rank among the best in InfraCompass2020. Its strong credit rating, low government debt and high income per capita, place it in an excellent position to fund infrastructure investment. In addition, the quality of Sweden’s regulatory frameworks, financial markets and permits promote competition among suppliers and encourage private investment. To improve the efficiency of infrastructure investment, Sweden could look to develop a national infrastructure plan and publish a pipeline of future projects.
GDP per capita

60,816 USD

Population

10.5 million persons

Infrastructure quality

84.0 (0-100 best)

GDP growth rate

0.9%

GDP per capita growth rate

-5.7%

Gini coefficient

29.2 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

37.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

1.7%

Summary credit rating

99.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

6.8%

Urbanisation ratio

87.0% of total population

Road connectivity

95.9 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

5.3 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of train services

4.0 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

5.7 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

5.3 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

100.0% of population

Electricity supply quality

5.3% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

0.3% of population

Reliability of water supply

6.8 (1-7 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

123.0 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

39.1 per 100 population