Payment volumes drop 25% in March: Nordea

The payment volumes in Finland were down by around 25% at the end of March but have recovered with the partial easing of the lockdown, according to Nordea’s card data.

The Finnish economy has suffered a severe collapse due to the corona crisis, with the deepest drop occurring in household consumption, said Nordea in its economic outlook.

It said the collapse of demand and increased uncertainty will hurt corporate investment, and the challenges for exporters and manufacturing companies are expected to worsen in the autumn when their order books are cleared.

It also said that the outlook of the world economy remains bleak. The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved into the biggest health crisis in 100 years, and the draconian measures to curb the spread of infection have had enormous financial costs.

While economic growth will soon be on the rise again as locked-down communities gradually reopen, it will likely be a long time before the economic scars are fully healed.

The Nordic economies have also been hit hard by the containment measures and global recession.