Labour market conditions in Iceland further improved during the last year. In March 2015 the harmonised unemployment rate stood at 4.2% of the labour force, 1 percentage point lower than a year earlier.

The Secretary-General presented the 2015 OECD Economic Survey of Iceland and held meetings with the President of Iceland, the Prime Minster and several other ministers. Mr. Gurría also attended meetings with business and unions, and the Parliament’s Economic and Trade Affairs Committee.

This policy profile is part of the Education Policy Outlook series, which presents comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across OECD countries.

Education at a Glance 2016 - Country Notes

This country note provides an environmental tax and carbon pricing profile for Iceland. It shows environmentally related tax revenues, taxes on energy use and effective carbon rates.

This country note presents student performance in science, reading and mathematics, and measures equity in education in Iceland. The interactive charts allow you to compare results with other countries participating in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Despite a small aid budget, Iceland stands out among donors for its commitment to supporting the poorest countries and using its expertise in areas like renewable energy, land restoration and gender equality for aid programmes that advance global goals, according to a new OECD report.

Iceland is the OECD’s smallest economy and,currently,the fastest growing. A booming financial services and construction led to a deep financial crisis in 2008. However, Iceland has made a remarkable turnaround, helped by spectacular growth of tourism, prudent economic policies and a favourable external environment.

This note presents selected country highlights from the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017 with a specific focus on digital trends among all themes covered.

This note presents marginal effective tax rates (METRs) that summarise the tax system’s impact on the incentives to make an additional investment in a particular type of savings. By comparing METRs on different types of household savings, we can gain insights into which assets or savings types receive the most favourable treatment from the tax system.

The family-friendly policies introduced by Nordic countries over the past 50 years and associated increases in female employment have boosted growth in GDP per capita by between 10% and 20%, according to a new OECD report.

This country note for Iceland provides detail on the proportion of CO2 emissions from energy use subject to different effective carbon rates (ECR), as well as on the level and components of average ECRs in each of the six economic sectors (road transport, off-road transport, industry, agriculture and fishing, residential & commercial, and electricity).

The digital revolution, globalisation and demographic changes are transforming labour markets at a time when policy makers are also struggling with slow productivity and wage growth and high levels of income inequality. The new OECD Jobs Strategy provides a comprehensive framework and policy recommendations to help countries address these challenges.

The Icelandic standard VAT rate is 24.0%, which is above the OECD average. The average VAT/GST¹ standard rate in the OECD was 19.3% as of 1 January 2019. The previous standard VAT rate in Iceland was 25.5% in 2014. It changed to the current level in 2015. Iceland applies reduced VAT rates of 0% and 11% to a number of goods and services.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Reykjavik on 15-16 September 2019 to present the 2019 OECD Economic Survey of Iceland, alongside Mr. Bjarni Benediktsson, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, and Ms. Lilja Alfredsdottir, Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland.

This country note explains how Iceland taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Iceland decreased by 0.8 percentage points from 37.5% in 2017 to 36.7% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Iceland decreased by 0.3 percentage points from 33.4 in 2018 to 33.1 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Iceland had the 25th lowest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, compared with the 24th in 2018.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has serious concerns that recent steps taken by Greece may leave the country in breach of the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention. On 11 June 2019, Greece amended the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. As a result, the main active bribery offence was converted from felony to a misdemeanour, which is a less serious offence.

This country note explains how Greece taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Greece decreased by 0.2 percentage points from 38.9% in 2017 to 38.7% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

Greece - Country Health Profiles 2019: Launch presentation. The Country Health Profiles provide a concise and policy-relevant overview of health and health systems in the EU/European Economic area, emphasizing the particular characteristics and challenges in each country against a backdrop of cross-country comparisons.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Greece decreased by 0.2 percentage points from 41.0 in 2018 to 40.8 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Greece had the 14th highest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, compared with the 13th in 2018.

While the prevalence of obesity in Italy is lower than in most other countries, it still has significant consequences. Italians live on average 2.7 years less due to overweight. Overweight accounts for 9.0% of health expenditure, above the average for other countries. Labour market outputs are lower due to overweight by the equivalent of 571 thousand full time workers per year.

Sebbene in Italia la prevalenza dell’obesità sia inferiore a quella della maggior parte degli altri paesi, essa ha comunque conseguenze significative. Gli italiani vivono in media 2,7 anni in meno a causa del sovrappeso. Il sovrappeso rappresenta il 9% della spesa sanitaria, superiore alla media degli altri paesi.

This country note explains how Italy taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

Despite lower than average health spending, Italy has the fourth highest life expectancy across the OECD, at 83 years at birth. Italians generally have healthy lifestyles. Alcohol consumption is low. The share of adults overweight or obese is also relatively low (46% of adults, as compared with the OECD average of 56%). However, the share of children overweight is the second highest across OECD countries.

Key findings for Italy from the report "Pensions at a Glance 2019"

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Italy did not change between 2017 and 2018. The tax-to-GDP ratio remained at 42.1%. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The Secretary-General of the OECD, Mr. Angel Gurría, will be in Rome on Friday 31 January 2020 to present the OECD Review of Italian Capital Markets “Creating Growth Opportunities for Italian Companies and Savers”.

Italy’s structural reforms of recent years have improved the financial health of the corporate sector and contributed to a gradual economic recovery. However, the Italian economy still lags other large European economies. Improving the way capital markets function would help drive investment in the real economy, creating jobs and boosting productivity, according to a new OECD report.

Italy - Country Health Profiles 2019: Launch presentation. The Country Health Profiles provide a concise and policy-relevant overview of health and health systems in the EU/European Economic area, emphasizing the particular characteristics and challenges in each country against a backdrop of cross-country comparisons.

This note presents selected findings based on the set of well-being indicators published in How's Life? 2020.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Italy increased by 0.2 percentage points from 47.8 in 2018 to 48.0 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Italy had the 3rd highest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, occupying the same position in 2018.

This report discusses the main areas in which national strategies to expand broadband networks affect universal service objectives, proposes criteria to rethink the terms of universal service policies, and shares the latest developments across a selected group of OECD countries.

An examination of payments issues is taking place in the context of the review of the OECD’s 1999 guidelines on e-commerce. This report looks at what might need to be amplified or revised to enhance consumer trust and adoption of new and emerging online and mobile payment mechanisms. It reflects contributions made by national delegations, business and civil society.

The OECD has adopted a new basket methodology for benchmarking wireless broadband prices. It adds to the existing baskets for voice, leased lines and fixed broadband services and reflects the increasing importance of wireless broadband for laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Internet firms continue to drive growth and job creation in the IT industry, with fast-rising demand for mobile services helping to boost revenue and investment in research and development, according to a new OECD report.

Mobile providers have garnered a very large share of traditional services, such as telephony, over the past decade. Nevertheless, mobile networks are dependent on fixed networks and could not efficiently meet the rapidly expanding demand of users without the contributions made by fixed broadband networks.

The OECD has launched an online portal to give consumers, businesses and governments quick and easy access to the latest information on products recalled from the market in Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States.

The 2012 Technology Foresight Forum will focus on the potential of big data analytics as a new source of growth, which could help generate significant economic and social benefits

This report provides background on e-book markets and examines various policy issues. These include differing tax rates in countries between physical books and e-books, consumer lock-in to specific platforms, limitations on how users can read and share their purchased content, and a lack of transparency about how data on their reading habits is used.

While the nature of cyber attacks continues to include criminal activities motivated by financial gain, the main emerging threats are large-scale denial of service attacks, information leaks, targeted cyber espionage, and the disruption of critical infrastructures.

This report provides an overview of existing data and statistics in the fields of information security, privacy and the protection of children online. It highlights the potential for the development of better indicators in these respective fields showing in particular that there is an underexploited wealth of empirical data that, if mined and made comparable, will enrich the current evidence base for policy making.

In 2017 a household with two teenagers will have 25 Internet connected devices. In 2022 this will rise to 50, compared with only 10 today. In households in the OECD alone there will be 14 billion connected devices, up from 1.7 billion today and this doesn’t take into account everything outside the household and outside the OECD. All this leads to the smart world discussed in a new OECD paper.

This report takes an initial look at methodologies to measure and estimate the monetary value of personal data, which is creating economic and social value at an increasing pace. But measuring and estimating its value is difficult. This is because not only a huge amount of personal data is being generated, but also as it is used in many different situations and for numerous purposes.

This report explores the potential role of data and data analytics for the creation of significant competitive advantage and the formation of knowledge-based capital. Five sectors are discussed as areas in which the use of data can stimulate innovation and productivity growth: online advertisement, health care, utilities, logistics and transport, and public administration.

A new OECD report sheds light on mobile handset acquisition models, and provides pricing information from selected operators in 12 OECD countries for 2012.

OECD countries must ensure mobile markets remain open and competitive in order to sustain innovation and meet rising demand for data services, according to a new OECD report.

This publication reviews progress made since 2008 and identifies areas for future work. It demonstrates that the Internet economy has now reached a point where it has become a new source of growth, with the potential to boost the whole economy, to foster innovation, competitiveness and user participation, and to contribute effectively to the prosperity of society as a whole.