I am trying to follow developments in the Finnish economy. This isn’t always easy since I am linguistically challenged, and the english language press doesn’t have a lot of info. One thing is clear: growth since the start of the century hasn’t been spectacular. Of course drawing any clear conclusions is difficult since the economy seems to be heavily dependent on one tech company and its lumber industry:
Finland’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.7 percent month-on-month in July for an annual rise of 0.9 percent, due to increased activity in construction and services, Statistics Finland (SF) said on Tuesday.
SF also revised the June year-on-year GDP figure to a decline of 3.2 percent versus a previous 3.3-percent decline.
The country’s paper industry was still affected in July by production lost during plant start-ups after mills in the key export sector were shut for 7 weeks from mid-May.
Source: NTC research
You can find the Statistics Finland data here.
The reason for this years dip is the paper industry labor dispute which lasted for more than a month. Yes, the paper industry is that big.