GDP grows by 1.7% in 2018

The volume of Finland’s GDP grew by 1.7 per cent in 2018, according to Statistics Finland.

Growth also amounted to 1.7 per cent in the previous calculation round in June.

GDP, or the value added created in the production of goods and services, amounted to EUR 234 billion in 2018. The value of GDP increased by EUR 2.4 billion in 2018 compared to the data published in June and by around EUR one to two billion per year over the entire period 2010 to 2018.

Compared to the data published in June, the 2018 current-priced value added increased by EUR 2.4 billion to EUR 202 billion.

The value added of 2017 increased by EUR 1.9 billion. This increase was mainly due to coverage revisions made in services. Similar revisions have been made throughout the 2010s and for some items even longer.

For example, items related to financing and insurance, as well as grey and illegal economy have been added to the revised time series.

In the financial sector, value added growth was affected by other operating income being added to output, and in operations serving financing, by revisions to output and intermediate consumption.

The level of investments increased by EUR 2.9 billion or some five per cent in 2018. The level revision did not have much effect on the annual changes in investments. In 2018, the volume of investments rose by 3.3 per cent from the year before.

The main revisions in investments were made to the levels of building construction investments. The revisions were related to corrections in the output of building construction. The levels of civil engineering investments and machinery investments were also raised in connection with the time series revision.