THE harbour may be frozen, but that does not stop a ferry with a few intrepid tourists on board from making its way through the ice to Suomenlinna, a former fortress and popular sight-seeing spot near Helsinki. Finns, whose country stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Arctic, are inured to hostile conditions, but their economy seems less hardy. It is stuck in an unrelenting freeze. A centre-right coalition government formed last spring is trying to break the ice, but has not yet got far.
After thriving for several years both before and after joining the euro in 1999, Finland ran into trouble after the financial crisis of 2008. Output plunged by 8.3% in 2009 and GDP declined again for three successive years since 2011. That may turn out to be four years, once the full figures for 2015 are released: in the first nine months of last year output rose by a mere 0.1% compared with the same period in 2014, barely more than in benighted Greece. Short-term indicators suggest that the economy will be flat in early 2016, says Jussi Mustonen, chief economist at the...Continue reading
Source: Business and finance http://ift.tt/1NLmZ7a
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