Only half of Foreigner.fi readers think the economy will improve next year

Coronavirus affected economies very badly all over the world. The global economy will contract by 4.4% this year, a more moderate downturn than initially anticipated.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the revision was driven by "unprecedented fiscal, monetary, and regulatory responses" that helped soften the blow from the coronavirus crisis in large advanced economies.

Finnish economy also in a recession. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 6.4% year-on-year in the second quarter and the output of the national economy also fell in July (2.7%) and August (3.3%) year-on-year.

Consumer prices increased by 0.2% in September. Finnish consumer prices were raised most by increases in the prices of cigarettes, refundable prescription medicines, games of chance and wireless telephone services from one year ago. Inflation for food (including non-alcoholic beverages) was also much higher than the average (2%).

In the second quarter of 2020, the net income from financial operations of credit institutions dedicated to banking in Finland rose to 1.2 billion euros. However, the operating profit fell by 18.2% to 504 million euros.

Wages and salaries increased since the last year, according to Statistics Finland. It was not a very significant rise in nominal terms, but it was higher than inflation, so the real earnings of wage and salary earners also improved timidly, both in the private and public sectors.

Therefore, Foreigner.fi asked the readers in a Twitter poll: “Do you think the economic situation in Finland will be better or worse in 2021?”

In the poll, the respondents were given two options which were 'Better’ and 'Worse'.

The mini poll was answered by 50 readers and half of the readers (50%) think the Finish economy will improve next year. The other 50% said the situation will be ‘Worse’.

Foreigner.fi is going to ask a different question about Finland every Friday on its official Twitter account @foreigner.fi