Luxembourg

Founded in 963, Luxembourg became a grand duchy in 1815 and an independent state under the Netherlands. It lost more than half of its territory to Belgium in 1839 but gained a larger measure of autonomy. Full independence was attained in 1867. Overrun by Germany in both world wars, it ended its neutrality in 1948 when it entered into the Benelux Customs Union and when it joined NATO the following year. In 1957, Luxembourg became one of the six founding countries of the European Economic Community (later the European Union), and in 1999 it joined the euro currency area.

Economical characteristics

• Currency: Euro (ISO code: EUR)
• Central bank discount rate: 3% (31 December 2008)
• is part of the Eurozone

Statistics

Statistic / Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
GDP (million USD)	21 188	20 269	20 199	22 579	29 158	34 169	37 604	42 556	49 835	53 704
Govt. debt (% of GDP)			4.881	4.700	3.849	4.046	3.602	4.394	4.763
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)	38.758	39.804	40.593	39.784	38.527	38.258	38.616	37.214	38.112
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)	35.019	33.806	35.444	36.348	37.009	38.248	37.028	34.790	34.127
Debt to revenue (years)			0.120	0.118	0.100	0.106	0.093	0.118	0.125

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

External links

• Luxembourg on Wikipedia
• Central bank of Luxembourg
• BBC country profile