Finland: Growth in economic activity slows in January
Economic activity grew a working-day adjusted 0.9% in January compared to the same month last year, down from December’s revised growth of 2.7% (previously reported: +3.6% year-on-year), according to the latest monthly Trend Indicator of Output released by Statistics Finland.
The deceleration in year-on-year growth in economic activity in January was largely due to a weaker expansion in services production, the most significant form of production in Finland, and a contraction in primary production, which includes agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing activity. Services production increased 0.6%, much lower than December’s growth rate of 3.0%. Primary production suffered a contraction of 2.5%, worse than December’s contraction of 2.1%. Meanwhile, secondary production grew 1.7% (December: +1.2% yoy).
A month-on-month comparison shows that economic activity, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, was flat in January, marking a deterioration from December’s 0.1% growth. Annual average growth in economic activity was 3.0% in January, down from December’s 3.1%.