Finland’s rate of unemployment will reach the ten per cent mark this year, according to the forecast in Aktia Bank’s economic review. In November 2009, 8.5% of the country’s working population were without a job.
According to Aktia, unemployment figures are set to continue to rise for months, but towards the summer this trend will start slowing down. In the bank’s view, the most feared scenarios will not materialise.
The bank predicts that the worst period in the unemployment development will have been passed by the summer and that the suffered damage will remain below that caused by the recession of the early 1990s.
However, the bank warns that too hasty a tightening of economic policy might put the recovery process into jeopardy.
Despite the positive signs, Aktia believes that Finland’s economic situation will continue to drag for another few years. Production will stay below the 2008 level until into 2012.
