Both costs and revenue of municipalities slide in Jan-Sept

The external operating expenses of municipalities in the mainland Finland were 2.5 per cent lower in the first three quarters of 2017 than in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the Statistics Finland.

On the other hand, the external operating revenue decreased by 7.1 per cent in the first nine months in 2017.

Municipalities’ tax revenue totalled EUR 17.4 billion and central government transfers to local government EUR 6.6 billion in the period.

The external operating expenses of joint municipal authorities grew by 8.7 per cent and operating revenue by 8.8 per cent.

In January to September 2017, the operating expenses of municipalities in the mainland Finland without internal items totalled EUR 26.5 billion and the operating revenue amounted to EUR 5.2 billion.

Municipalities received a total of EUR 24.1 billion in tax funding in the first three quarters of 2017. Tax revenue and central government transfers to local government grew by 0.5 per cent compared with the previous year. Tax funding per capita was EUR 4,399 in the mainland Finland. The combined annual contribution margin of municipalities totalled EUR 3.3 billion, which was 15.2 per cent more than in the previous year.

The municipalities invested a total of EUR 2.1 billion in January to September 2017. Compared with January to September 2016, investment expenses went up by 7.4 per cent. At the end of September, the loan stock totalled EUR 15.2 billion.

In January to September 2017, the operating expenses of joint municipal authorities in the mainland Finland totalled EUR 10.1 billion and the external operating revenue totalled EUR 10.8 billion. The annual contribution margin of joint municipal authorities grew 12.5 per cent to EUR 0.7 billion.

The investment expenses of joint municipal authorities totalled EUR 0.6 billion over the period, posting a 17.9 per cent growth year on year. As of end-September, the loan stock of the joint municipal authorities totalled EUR 3.2 billion, which was 0.9 per cent more than 12 months ago.