There are currently approximately  BIS Review 2/2002  5  22,000 apartments vacant throughout the country and scenarios indicate that the vacancy rates in certain areas may increase further. What would market rents involve for areas in Sundsvall, Karlskoga, Boden or Bergsjön in Gothenburg? Would the rents in a market-adapted system be reduced in these areas to be able to compete with the single-family dwelling market? Yes, that is possible, but the question is whether the vacancies would be filled in all of the “emigration” regions? It would probably only apply to regions within commuting distance of jobs. However, if market rents and other changes in the regulations may mean that housing is built where it is needed, which will enable the labour market to function better, this could in any case improve Sweden’s potential growth. There are indeed a number of important future scenarios that need to be considered by both the housing companies themselves and the banks as lenders. 6  BIS Review 2/2002
However, keeping with the global and domestic economic trends, the relative importance of the agriculture sector has been shrinking. Accordingly, the share in agriculture reduced to about 12 per cent of GDP by end 2007. What has been the impact? It has not been able to create sufficient value or wealth with the reduced share of sectoral importance. While recognizing the historic importance of the agriculture sector we should recognize the fact that it has a limitation in the form of low contribution to the national output and low productivity in the current context. Notably, as about one third of the labour force is engaged in agriculture, its total output is distributed among a large number of workers. According to the World Development Report 2006 of the World Bank, the agricultural value added per agricultural worker in Sri Lanka, measured in 2000 US dollars, has been US dollars 696 for the period of 1989-91. This has increased only marginally to US dollars 737 in 2001-03. However, the comparable figures for other countries, even in emerging countries, have been much higher than these figures. What is the result? As a result, the income of agricultural workers in Sri Lanka has been very low, keeping them below the poverty line. At the same time, underemployment has been the natural consequence since employment in agriculture is seasonal and there is a higher concentration of a large farm-based work-force on limited extents of cultivable land.