Financial Statements Bulletin 2024, 19 February 2025
The following outlook information is based on materials published by the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK and Statistics Finland.
The world economy outlook has remained largely unchanged. The world economy is estimated to grow 3.3 percent in 2025, but the growth rate will vary clearly between markets. Growth in the Euro area is expected to reach only 1.0 percent even though interest rates are estimated to decrease further. There are major factors of uncertainty in global economic development, related to geopolitical developments in particular. These include, for example, possible new tariffs between different countries.
The economic outlook for Finnish companies is estimated to have turned, but the recovery is expected to be moderate due to lower than expected consumer demand, among other factors. The confidence indicator for retail trade decreased slightly at the beginning of the year and remains below the long-term average in Finland. Retail sales have continued to decrease, but sales expectations for the coming months are moderately positive. Consumer confidence continues to be clearly below the long-term average. Consumer estimates concerning the current state of personal finances weakened and were at a very low level. Expectations for the future of personal finances decreased slightly while those of Finland’s economy were slightly higher than before. Estimates concerning inflation and expectations for its future development continued at a fairly high level.
(Confederation of Finnish Industries EK: Business Tendency Survey, January 2025; Confidence Indicators, January 2025. Statistics Finland: Consumer Confidence, January 2025.)
The working-day-adjusted turnover of Finnish retail trade increased by 3.6 percent in December compared to the previous year and the volume of sales increased by 2.3 percent. The cumulative working-day-adjusted turnover of retail trade in the January–December period decreased by 0.6 percent and the volume of sales decreased by 1.1 percent.
(Statistics Finland: Turnover of Trade, retail trade flash estimate, December 2024.)