AFP, HELSINKI:  Finland’s economy seems to be regaining strength after four difficult years, with Statistics Finland revealing yesterday the best quarterly growth figure since 2011. In the first three months of the year, the troubled eurozone country’s gross domestic product grew at 0.6 per cent from the previous quarter and at 1.6 per cent compared to the previous year, the national statistics institute said. “Three causes of joy: strongest growth since 2011, still potential for growth in exports and eurozone (growth figure) overtaken,” economist Juhana Brotherus, of Hypo bank, tweeted, comparing Finland’s year-on-year growth at 1.58 per cent to the eurozone average at 1.53 per cent.
Finland emerged from a three-year recession in 2015, with tepid growth of 0.5 per cent, a situation blamed on its falling competitiveness, ageing population and the economic problems of its major trading partners, Russia and the European Union.