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Banking group upgrades forecast for Finnish economy

Xinhua, January 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The OP-Pohjola banking and insurance group has published a more optimistic outlook for the Finnish economy this year and next, Finnish media reported on Thursday.

The group has raised the estimate of growth of Finland's gross national product in 2015 to 1.0 percent, higher than its previous forecast of 0.6 percent.

In 2016, Finland would see a 1.7 percent growth, added OP-Pohjola Group, one of the largest financial organizations in Finland.

Finland has suffered severe slowdown in its economy for three consecutive years.

The forecast maintained that Finnish exports would continue recovering and would benefit from a lower value of the euro and the decline in oil prices.

The problems facing neighboring Russia would, however, affect Finnish export industries, but the improvement in the world economy would, nevertheless, offset the impact.

Reijo Heiskanen, chief economist of OP-Pohjola Group, did not rule out the possibility that the value of the euro would go down to parity with the U.S. dollar. He told media that the situation would support Finnish exports as well. Endit