Municipalities’ operating costs grow by 1% in Jan-Sep

The external operating expenses of municipalities in Mainland Finland amounted to EUR 28.7 billion in January to September 2020.

Compared with the figure of the corresponding period of the previous year, the growth was 1.0 per cent, according to the Statistics Finland.

The external operating revenue of municipalities amounted to EUR 4.9 billion. Operating revenue decreased by 3.3 per cent. The operating margin weakened by EUR 0.4 billion to EUR -23.6 billion.

Municipalities received a total of EUR 17.8 billion in tax revenue in the first three quarters of 2020.

The sum was 4.2 per cent higher than that in the corresponding period of the last year.

Municipalities received EUR 8.1 billion in central government transfers to local government and they increased by 20.7 per cent year on year. Tax funding, formed of tax revenue and central government transfers to local government, was EUR 4,712 per capita on average in the municipalities in Mainland Finland.

The investment expenses of municipalities amounted to EUR 2.8 billion in January to September, posting an 11.6 per cent year-on-year growth.

Municipalities’ combined loan stock decreased by 1.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 compared with that at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of September, the loan stock amounted to EUR 19.3 billion. The loan stock per capita was EUR 3,514 on average.

The external operating expenses of joint municipal authorities in Mainland Finland amounted to EUR 11.9 billion in total and the external operating revenue to EUR 12.1 billion in January to September 2020. Operating expenses grew by 1.0 per cent from that in the corresponding period of last year, while operating revenue decreased by 1.2 per cent.

The investment expenditure of joint municipal authorities totalled EUR 0.9 billion in the first three quarters of 2020. Investment expenditure was 13.4 per cent higher than in January to September of the previous year. At the end of September, the loan stock totalled EUR 5.2 billion and it grew by 3.2 per cent from the beginning of July.

These data appear from the Statistics Finland’s statistics on quarterly local government finances, for which data were collected from 80 municipalities and 69 joint municipal authorities in Mainland Finland.