Finland Economy 1997

Economy - overview Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free-market economy, withper capita output equaling that of the UK, France and Italy. Its key economicsector is manufacturing - principally the wood, metals, and engineering industries.Trade is important, with the export of goods representing about 30% of GDP.Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports of rawmaterials, energy, and some components for manufactured goods. Because ofthe climate, agricultural development is limited to maintaining self-sufficiencyin basic products. Forestry, an important export earner, provides a secondaryoccupation for the rural population. The economy has come back from the recessionof 1990-92, which had been caused by economic overheating, depressed foreignmarkets, and the dismantling of the barter system between Finland and theformer Soviet Union under which Soviet oil and gas had been exchanged forFinnish manufactured goods. The Finns voted in an October 1994 referendumto enter the EU, and Finland officially joined the Union on 1 January 1995.Attempts to cut the unacceptably high rate of unemployment and increasingintegration with Western Europe will dominate the economic picture over thenext few years.

GDP purchasing power parity - $97.1 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 2.5% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $19,000 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture : 7%
industry: 37%
services: 56% (1994)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 0.7% (1996)

Labor force
total: 2.533 million
by occupation: public services 30.4%, industry 20.9%, commerce 15.0%, finance, insurance,and business services 10.2%, agriculture and forestry 8.6%, transport andcommunications 7.7%, construction 7.2%

Unemployment rate 16.6% (1996)

Budget
revenues: $25.9 billion
expenditures: $35 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1995 est.)

Industries metal products, shipbuilding, pulp and paper, copper refining, foodstuffs,chemicals, textiles, clothing

Industrial production growth rate 7.4% (1995)

Electricity - capacity 14.14 million kW (1994)

Electricity - production 60.5 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity - consumption per capita 12,373 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products cereals, sugar beets, potatoes; dairy cattle; annual fish catch about160,000 metric tons

Exports
total value: $29.7 billion (f.o.b., 1994)
commodities: paper and pulp, machinery, chemicals, metals, timber
partners: EU 46.5% (Germany 13.4%, UK 10.3%), Sweden 11%, US 7.2%, Japan 2.1%,FSU 8.6% (1994)

Imports
total value : $23.2 billion (c.i.f., 1994)
commodities: foodstuffs, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, transport equipment,iron and steel, machinery, textile yarn and fabrics, fodder grains
partners : EU 44% (Germany 15%, UK 8.3%), Sweden 10.4%, US 7.6%, Japan 6.5%, FSU10.3 (1994)

Debt - external $30 billion (December 1993)

Economic aid
donor : ODA, $355 million (1993)

Currency 1 markka (FMk) or Finmark = 100 pennia

Exchange rates markkaa (FMk) per US$1 - 4.7765 (January 1997), 4.5936 (1996), 4.3667(1995), 5.2235 (1994), 5.7123 (1993), 4.4794 (1992)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Finland on this page is re-published from the 1997 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Finland Economy 1997 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Finland Economy 1997 should be addressed to the CIA.