The Finnish Property Market 2012 - KTI

1. Basic facts about Finland
2. The Finnish economy
8
The Finnish Property Market 2012
Geography
Total area
Distances
People
Population
Languages
338,000 square kilometres
1,160 km north to south, 540 km east
to west
5.40 million
Density: 17,6 inhabitants per square
kilometre
Uusimaa region (southern Finland):
222,6 per km2
Lappi region (northern Finland):
2 per km2
Two official languages:
Finnish, spoken by 90.0%
Swedish, spoken by 5.4%
Foreign nationals: 3.1% of population
Religions Lutheran 78.2%
Orthodox 1.1%
Capital city Helsinki, 595,000 inhabitants
Helsinki region, 1.35 million
inhabitants
comprising Helsinki and 13
neighbouring municipalities – Espoo
and Vantaa being the biggest
Other
important cities
Espoo, 252,000
Tampere, 215,000
Vantaa, 203,000
Turku, 179,000
Oulu, 144,000
Jyväskylä, 132,000
Lahti, 102,000
Kuopio, 97,000
Economy
GDP per capita €33,608 (2010)
Most important
industries
Metal and engineering products
Forest industry products
Chemical industry products
Electronics and electrotechnical
goods
Currency Euro (since 2002)
History and Independent democracy since 1917
governance
Head of State
Parliament
Member of the European Union
since 1995
President of Republic, Sauli Niinistö
(elected in 2012, starting from
1.3.2012)
One chamber, 200 members, elected
for 4 years. Current parliament
elected in 2011. Biggest parties:
National Coalition Party (44 seats),
The Social Democratic Party (42),
The Finns Party (39), The Center
Party (35)
2.1 The structure of the economy
Within a few decades, Finland has transformed itself from a
society largely based on primary production and agriculture
to one of the richest and most multifaceted economies
in the world. The deregulation of the financial markets in
1980s, as well as reforms made following the deep recession
in the early 1990s, contributed to the transformation. As a
result, the structure of the economy is now internationally
competitive and balanced.
The structure of the Finnish economy is akin to most
Western developed countries. Private services currently
account for ca. 49% of the Finnish gross domestic production.
Their share has increased constantly while that of primary
production and industry has decreased. In 2010, public
services accounted for almost 20% of the GDP.
Industrial production plays an important role in the
economy, as ca. 75% of the Finnish exports consists of
industrial products. Industrial production – as well as Finnish
exports – are dominated by three main industrial sectors.
Along with the traditionally strong forestry industries, both
electrotechnical and metal industries play an important role
in the Finnish economy. These main industries are followed
by the chemical industries and the environmental and energy
industries – sectors that are increasing in importance. Due
to the relatively low cost competitiveness in international
comparison, increase in productivity, greater specialisation,
as well as transformation to higher value-added production
has been required in order to maintain competitiveness
within these industrial sectors.
“The Finnish exports
are based on five
industrial sectors”
The Finnish economy’s success or failure is highly dependent
on foreign trade, the share of which has increased significantly
during the past few decades due to the changes in the
structure of the economy. As a consequence, production
for those industries that are export-driven fluctuates based
on changes in the demand for goods. The international
competitiveness of the Finnish industrial production was
improved by the severe recession in the early 1990s, which
forced corporations to institute structural reforms in order
to survive. The share of service exports has increased at the
same pace as that of goods. In 2010, the value of exports for
services industries amounted to ca. €18.6 billion. The biggest
exporting service sector is business services, which includes
engineer and other knowledge-intensive services.