EK survey shows better business outlook

The business outlook in the Finnish economy has improved at the beginning of 2017, found the latest Confederation of Finnish Industries Business Tendency Survey.

The recovery that started last year has accelerated in all main sectors. Despite the improvement, however, the service-sector companies describe their outlook as slightly below average, while in the manufacturing and construction industries the outlooks are estimated to be already above average.

Moreover, the business outlook for Finnish companies over the next six months is slightly brighter than before.

Growth is expected to continue and the respondent companies forecast their output and sales to grow rather rapidly in the next few months. Companies also expect to hire some more personnel.

In April, the Confederation of Finnish Industries asked businesses to evaluate their business outlook for summer and autumn 2017. The survey concerns business activities in Finland.

The general business outlook balance indicator was completed in April. The general outlook is expected to improve during summer and autumn 2017.

The volume of new orders received by manufacturing companies increased substantially in the first quarter of the year and growth is expected to continue later in the spring.

Order books have shown improvement and are already being described as somewhat stronger than average. In construction, no significant changes are expected to take place in order volume and the order books are on the usual level.

In all main business sectors, output and sales growth accelerated during January-March. In the next few months, growth is expected to continue at a rather brisk rate.

The capacity utilisation rate in the manufacturing sector remained near the long-term average. In April, 74 per cent of the respondents indicated that their production capacity was fully utilised (73 per cent in January).

Despite recovery, some companies feel demand is still subdued.

The Business Tendency Survey is published four times a year by the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK).

The survey has been carried out regularly since 1966. It is part of the European Commission’s Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys, which is partially funded by the EU. A total of 1,285 companies employing 260,000 people in Finland responded to the survey carried out in April 2017.