Nordea Bank upgrades forecast for Finland's economic growth

Nordea Bank raised its forecast for Finland's economic growth in 2017 and 2018, according to a press release issued by the bank on Thursday.

The bank said that the Finnish economy will rise by 1.0 percent in 2017, but the growth is expected to slow down to 0.8 percent in 2018. In the previous outlook made in September, the figures were 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

"For the current year, economic growth relies heavily on domestic demand, which is undeniably bound with construction and private consumption," said the Bank.

And the fast rise on both the sectors coincides, Aki Kangasharju, chief economist at Nordea Bank, said in the press release. But the trend will slow down from the next year, noted the bank.

Passenger cars alone will provide a healthy temporary boost to the exports next year, Kangasharju said.

Pasi Sorjonen, another economist at the bank, estimated that the value of passenger car exports will double next year and reach the level of 2015. This alone will be enough to increase the value of the exports by 2.0 percent.

Nordea forecast that the country's exports will grow faster in 2017 than any year since 2011.

But the bank said the Finnish economy needs a persistent growth in its exports, which does not exist in sight.

Despite the forecast upgrade, Nordea is still not very optimistic about the Finnish economy in the future. It warned that Finland's economic growth is still difficult to keep pace with other countries in the world. Enditem