HELSINKI: The ministry of finance has downgraded its growth forecast for Finland in 2015 from roughly 1.5 per cent. Mika Kuismanen, the head of forecasting at the Ministry of Finance, reveals that the forecast was downgraded due to the sluggish economic growth recorded late last year and the publication of revised seasonally adjusted economic indicators for the last three quarters of last year by Statistics Finland.
“Another reason is that we, like many others, have been wrong in the sense that we’ve had to postpone our expectations of the start of global economic growth.”There are nonetheless some positive signs in the open economy of the euro area, the United Kingdom as well as the United States, adds Kuismanen. “It’s nothing strong, but it’s better than what we’ve seen for some time,” he says.
Antti Rinne (SDP), the Minister of Finance, estimated at the Government Palace on Thursday that the sluggish economic growth is attributable to waning demand for exports, which, in turn, stems from structural changes in the manufacturing industries – especially the paper industry and Nokia sector – as well as lack of investments.
“Export-driven growth is what will save us in these circumstances. Concrete measures to support it are now needed.”The Ministry of Finance expects economic growth to remain extremely sluggish also in 2016—2019. The economy, Kuismanen reveals, is unlikely to grow by more than 1.5 per cent per year due to factors affecting the national output.
