Finland

Economy - overview:
Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free-market economy with per capita output roughly that of the UK, France, Germany, and Italy. Its key economic sector is manufacturing - principally the wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications, and electronics industries. Trade is important; Finland’s ratio of foreign trade to GDP has risen from a quarter to nearly 45% over the past 15 years. Finland excels in high-tech exports such as mobile phones. Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports of raw materials, energy, and some components for manufactured goods. Because of the climate, agricultural development is limited to maintaining self-sufficiency in basic products. Forestry, an important export earner, provides a secondary occupation for the rural population. Although Finland has been one of the best performing economies within the EU in recent years and its banks and financial markets have avoided the worst of global financial crisis, the world slowdown has hit export growth and domestic demand and will serve as a brake on economic growth in 2009 and 2010. The slowdown of construction, other investment, and exports will cause unemployment to rise. During 2009, unemployment will climb to over 8% of the labor force. Long-term challenges include the need to address a rapidly aging population and decreasing productivity that threaten competitiveness, fiscal sustainability, and economic growth.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$195.2 billion (2008 est.)
$192.1 billion (2007)
$184.3 billion (2006)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$281.2 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
1.5% (2008 est.)
4.2% (2007 est.)
4.9% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$37,200 (2008 est.)
$36,700 (2007 est.)
$35,200 (2006 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 2.8%
industry: 33.2%
services: 64% (2008 est.)
Labor force:
2.53 million (2008)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture and forestry 4.5%, industry 18.3%, construction 7.3%, commerce 16%, finance, insurance, and business services 14.5%, transport and communications 7%, public services 32.4% (2008)
Unemployment rate:
6.4% (2008 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3.6%
highest 10%: 24.7% (2007)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
29.5 (2007)
Investment (gross fixed):
20.5% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $66.48 billion
expenditures: $65.3 billion (2008)
Public debt:
33% of GDP (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
4.1% (2008 est.)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:
5.04% (December 2008)
Stock of money:
NA
note: see entry for the European Union for money supply in the euro area; the European Central Bank (ECB) controls monetary policy for the 16 members of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); individual members of the EMU do not control the quantity of money and quasi money circulating within their own borders
Stock of quasi money:
NA
Stock of domestic credit:
$240.7 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares:
$369.2 billion (31 December 2007)
Agriculture - products:
barley, wheat, sugar beets, potatoes; dairy cattle; fish
Industries:
metals and metal products, electronics, machinery and scientific instruments, shipbuilding, pulp and paper, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, clothing
Industrial production growth rate:
4% (2008 est.)
Electricity - production:
74.1 billion kWh (2008)
Electricity - consumption:
86.9 billion kWh (2008)
Electricity - exports:
3.2 billion kWh (2008)
Electricity - imports:
16 billion kWh (2008)
Oil - production:
8,951 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - consumption:
217,500 bbl/day (2008)
Oil - exports:
124,300 bbl/day (2007)
Oil - imports:
331,200 bbl/day (2007)
Oil - proved reserves:
NA bbl
Natural gas - production:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
2.268 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
4.576 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
0 cu m (1 January 2006)
Current account balance:
$10.29 billion (2008)
Exports:
$104.3 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Exports - commodities:
electrical and optical equipment, machinery, transport equipment, paper and pulp, chemicals, basic metals; timber
Exports - partners:
Germany 10.9%, Sweden 10.7%, Russia 10.3%, US 6.4%, UK 5.8%, Netherlands 5.6% (2007)
Imports:
$93.28 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Imports - commodities:
foodstuffs, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, transport equipment, iron and steel, machinery, textile yarn and fabrics, grains
Imports - partners:
Germany 15.8%, Russia 14%, Sweden 13.7%, Netherlands 6.8%, China 5.5%, UK 4.9% (2007)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$9.3 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Debt - external:
$271.2 billion (30 June 2007)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
$94.57 billion (2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
$121.9 billion (2008 est.)
Exchange rates:
euros (EUR) per US dollar - 0.6827 (2008 est.), 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004)