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Finnish economy recovers: Finance Ministry

Xinhua, April 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Finnish economy has returned to slow growth, according to the Economic Survey-Spring 2016 published by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday.

After three consecutive years of negative growth, the Finnish economy has finally started to show some signs of recovery. In 2015, the country's GDP rose by 0.5 percent, which is better than the ministry's previous outlook made in last December.

The ministry said that the slight growth was driven mainly by exports and consumption.

It is forecasted that the Finnish economy will grow by 0.9 percent compared with last year. The economic growth for 2017 and 2018 will be 1.2 percent, projected the ministry.

Despite the signs of resuscitation, the growth is expected to remain quite fragile. In 2018, the country' GDP will still be about 2 percent lower than in 2008, and the industrial production will be 20 percent lower than 10 years ago.

Earlier on Thursday, Mika Kuismanen, head of the Economic Unit of the Finance Ministry, commented on the economic outlook to the Finnish national broadcaster Yle that the export sectors are still struggling to gain traction, and the industrial production rose by 1.5 percent in February.

He added that the unemployment has not run out of control.

Kuismanen said Finland has not been properly kept the pace with the growth in the rest of the euro zone.

The Finnish economy has been mired in a prolonged recession since 2008. The government believes that the major reason lies in a lack of competitiveness in the global market.

Nevertheless, many economic specialists attribute the difficult situation of Finland to more factors, such as the global economic slowdown, the population aging, the downfall of Nokia, the difficulties of the forest and metal industries and others. Endit