Economy of Meriad

Meriad's economy operates under a  system of , with a significant amount of influence over the means of production controlled by labor unions and trade guilds and state ownership in strategic sectors. The economy, which at $1.084 trillion Ordic Standard Dollars is the 8th-largest in the world by nominal GDP, is fueled by Meriad's abundance of natural resources, and is heavily supported by the extraction and production of petroleum, expansive fisheries, and large-scale hydroelectric power. Major exports include raw resources, manufactured goods, armaments, and transportation equipment, including aircraft, automobiles, and trains. Meriad currently has the highest nominal GDP per capita in the world, at $90,618 Ordic standard dollars.

The country has a very high standard of living compared with other Escari countries, and a strongly integrated welfare system. Meriad's modern manufacturing and welfare system rely on a financial reserve produced by exploitation of natural resources, particularly Nordeaic Sea and North Neptic oil. Much of the Baker Oil Field in the Tartaric Ocean, one of the largest oil deposits in the world, is within Meriadni territorial waters around Saint Claire Island.

Exports
Meriad's large number of natural resources means that it is a large-scale exporter of natural resources, the chief of which is petroleum and refined oil. As of 2015, Meriad was third in the world for barrels of oil exported per capita, and exported an average of 1,711,000 /day. The majority of this oil, an estimated 69% of the country's total 2014 export capacity, was exported across the southern border to Allidron.

Meriad also has significant timber, aluminum, nickel, and iron reserves, although these have largely remained untapped as a result of the country's stringent environmental standards. Despite this, Meriad is currently the world's sixth-largest exporter of unwrought aluminium and ninth-largest exporter of iron ore.

Energy
Energy in Meriad is nationalized, and is overseen by the Ministry of Energy. In 2014, 62% of Meriad's energy was produced by hydroelectric plants, 15% by gas, 10% by nuclear, 5% by coal, and 8% by other renewable sources, including solar, wind, and tidal power. While the country extracted enough petroleum and natural gas to fulfill 80% of the country's energy requirements, the majority of it was exported or sold for usage in automobiles. The power produced by gas this year was the lowest production rate since 1998, whereas nuclear power production saw a 20% increase. Expansion and subsidization of renewable energy generation facilities, and the increased regulation of petroleum extraction in Meriadni territorial waters, is expected to further decrease the usage of gas as a major source of Meriadni energy. 90% of Meriad's power is expected to be produced by renewable sources by 2025, with the remaining 10% coming mainly from nuclear power. In 2015, Meriad was a net exporter of energy by a margin of 8, whereas the country imported just over 2 TWh in 2014 as a result of record low amounts of snowfall, which limited the country's ability to produce energy from its network of hydroelectric dams. Electricity is distributed by the state-owned company Nordenergi, which by law also owns all of the country's nuclear power stations. Other sources of energy, excluding coal-fired plants, can be owned by private corporations with the proper licensing, although the energy must be sold to Nordenergi at a set rate, which is adjusted depending on the method of generation. As such, only a small portion of the country's power is generated by private entities, as the set price of power makes profitability difficult to attain.

Since 2002, Meriad has used a strategy of indirect taxation as an instrument of, including taxes on , petroleum extraction, vehicle usage, and carbon dioxide emissions. An opinion poll conducted in 2011 showed that over 70% of Meriadnir approved of these taxes.