Economical overview
San Marino's economy is mainly based on
various services, such as tourism, banking and finance,
as well as light manufacturing. Tourism accounts for
about half of San Marino's gross domestic product (GDP),
as much as the financial and industrial sectors account
for. The sale of own stamps and collector coins is also
an important source of income for the state. Since 2002,
San Marino has been authorized to mark its own euro
coins.
The close economic ties with Italy mean that San
Marino's economy is strongly affected by developments in
neighboring countries. This became clear during the
international financial crisis and the subsequent euro
crisis of 2008 (see below).
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Countryaah.com:
Major imports by San Marino, covering a full list of top products imported by the country and trade value for each product category.
In ancient times, the people of San Marino mainly
depended on agriculture and the income from the mining
of limestone from the Titan Mountain.
From the 1980s, the development of the banking and
finance sector contributed to a sharp increase in
economic growth. But San Marino was also identified as a
so-called tax haven with suspected money laundering,
that is, authorities suspected that criminals used the
country's financial institutions to launder black money
whites, and even to fund terrorism.
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Abbreviationfinder.org: Check this abbreviation website to find three letter ISO codes for all countries in the world, including SMR which represents the country of San Marino.
In the 1990s, San Marino was criticized by the OECD
Economic Cooperation Organization for its banking
secrecy and the pressure to ease its secrecy to prevent
tax evasion increased after the turn of the millennium.
In 2003, the OECD threatened with sanctions, since San
Marino was listed as one of the seven countries in the
world, where it was most difficult to obtain bank
account information. Since then, San Marino has
gradually improved its transparency, and in 2011, San
Marino was removed from the OECD's gray list of tax
havens.
With Italy, however, the collaboration tightened, and
Italians smuggled cash into San Marino to avoid a stiff
tax control in Italy. Only after several years of
political developments, in June 2012, San Marino and
Italy were able to sign an agreement on exchange of
information on bank balances. It was seen as a key to
improved financial and economic cooperation between the
two countries, which in turn was crucial to San Marino's
opportunities to improve its economy.
Growth in San Marino's economy was strong in the
early 2000s, averaging about 3.5 percent plus annually
in 2000–2007. When the international financial crisis
hit, GDP fell by minus 3.4 percent in 2008 and a
dramatic fall of 12.8 percent in 2009. The decline
slowed to 5.2 percent in 2010, and in 2014, according
to preliminary figures, it was down to -1 percent. At
the same time, since the beginning of the crisis, tax
revenue had fallen by a third in four years, and the
budget had gone from balance to a deficit of more than 3
percent of GDP.
But for 2015, it was estimated to be a small GDP
surplus of 1 percent, and in a report in the spring of
2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was able to
show that San Marino's economy has begun to recover.
This was partly due to an upturn in the Italian economy
and the government's austerity measures, including an
extra income tax and the introduction of property taxes.
From 2017, VAT will also be introduced.
San Marino is part of a customs union with Italy, and
the economy is closely intertwined with the Italian.
About 90 percent of San Marino's exports go to Italy. As
compensation for San Marino handing over the customs
checks to Italy and thus losing out on, among other
things, customs duties, Italy pays an annual sum to San
Marino. During the euro crisis, economic and financial
cooperation between the two countries has been put to
the test (see Current policy).
FACTS - FINANCE
GDP per person
US $ 48,495 (2017)
Total GDP
US $ 1,633 million (2017)
GDP growth
1.5 percent (2017)
Inflation
1.3 percent (2019)
Government debt's share of GDP
78.0 percent (2018)
Currency
euro 1
- 1 euro = 100 cents
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