Finland’s foreign trade balance turns positive again

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Thanks in part to the completion and delivery to its owner across the Atlantic Ocean of the world’s largest and most expensive cruise liner in the history of shipbuilding, the MS Oasis of the Seas, Finland’s trade balance remained clearly on the surplus side in the month of October.
     
According to preliminary Customs statistics, the trade balance in October was positive by EUR 1.4 billion.
      Hence even without the billion-euro vessel the balance would still have remained on the plus side.
      In the period from January to October the cumulative trade surplus was EUR 1.8 billion.
      All the same, the total value of Finland’s exports in the month of October was EUR five billion, which is 14 per cent less than a year earlier. Without the large cruise vessel, it would have been down 31% year-on-year.
      Exports to the EU countries fell by nearly a third compared to the value in October of 2008. Imports declined in October by 32% from this time last year and stood at just over EUR 3.6 billion.
      Imports from other EU countries were off by a third and from outside the EU by 31%.
     
Apart from the shipbuilding industry, only the medicine and pharmaceutical products field managed to increase its export figures.
      The exports of electrotechnical products and cars were halved.
      The exports of machinery, instruments, and steel, in turn, fell by a third.
     
Among Finland's major trading partners, the only material growth noted was in exports to the United States, but this was largely the result of the delivery of the Oasis. Exports to Canada also rose.
      Imports from Germany, Sweden, and China all fell by a third. Imports from Russia were also down on the previous year.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland’s foreign trade headed downwards once more in August (3.11.2009)
  Mega cruise liner Oasis of the Seas completed on schedule (29.10.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat