(Reuters) -Denmark has cut its 2025 economic growth forecast to 1.4% from 3%, citing weaker prospects for pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk and tariffs on Danish goods exported to the U.S., the country’s economy ministry said on Friday.
“The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly challenged by competition in the markets for weight loss products, which has dampened growth expectations in the industry,” the ministry said in a statement.
A Novo Nordisk spokesperson declined to comment.
The Nordic country of six million people has benefited from the rapid expansion of Novo Nordisk, maker of the Wegovy weight loss drug and the Ozempic diabetes treatment. Last year, Denmark’s economic growth ranked among the highest in Europe, in part driven by Novo Nordisk, which accounted for one-fifth of the country’s employment growth.
Denmark, also home to large companies like shipping group Maersk, brewer Carlsberg, toymaker Lego and wind turbine maker Vestas, has an export-oriented economy that is highly sensitive to global developments but is helped by a large savings surplus and solid public finances.
Earlier this month, Novo Nordisk cut its full-year sales and operating profit forecasts for the second time this year, as the maker of Wegovy struggles to convince investors it can remain competitive in the obesity drug boom against U.S. rival Eli Lilly. The company, which employs around 34,000 people in Denmark, is facing layoffs after having almost doubled its total workforce over the last five years.
The ministry said that tariffs on goods imported into the United States, Denmark’s biggest export market, would also dampen growth. Exports to the United States saw a significant decline in the first half of the year, after a spike in the last six months of 2024, it said.
Exports are now forecast to grow by just 0.9% in 2025 compared to a May forecast of 4.3%.
However, the ministry increased its GDP growth forecast for 2026 to 2.1% from 1.4% as forecast in May, partly driven by an expectation of higher private and public spending.
(Reporting by Soren Sirich Jeppesen, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, William Maclean)
