Prime Minister Alexander Stubb’s cabinet held a press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday afternoon to discuss next year’s budget and the impact of Russia’s counter-measures against EU sanctions.
The ban has hit Finland’s food sector hard, but the Finance Ministry reckons it will only knock 0.1 percent off Finnish GDP with only a slight rise in unemployment. Overall the Finance Ministry is now forecasting zero growth for the Finnish economy this year.
The report stated that Russia's economy is struggling regardless of the sanctions, and has been since 2013 with associated knock-on effects for the Finnish economy.
The chairs of the five government parties took part in the press conference, which followed the first session of the final budget negotiations on Wednesday morning. Prime Minister Alexander Stubb told journalists that the talks were going well and it looked like Finland would avoid taking on large amounts of new debt.
Stubb then handed the floor to Markus Sovala, Director General of the Finance Ministry's Economics Department. He predicted that Finland’s economy will not grow this year, marking a third year of recession or stagnation.
The PM said that it was clear that the Finnish economy is worsening and will continue to do so, and that this will obviously impact the budget talks.
