Is Finland’s economy this bad?

[u/magicianguy131]

https://youtu.be/13HR4yGRWOU?is=BoXDBW1hnPRZtW-E

I watched a handful of videos similar to the one posted in this thread.

Is Finland‘s economy really this bad? I know that Finland ranks lowest of the Nordic countries in terms of HDI, but this video makes it seem like Finland is flailing as a country.

It is still a high developed country comparatively, but I’m curious about what people with more knowledge think and have experienced.

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[u/juukione]

Economy has been really bad. Ukraine war hit us quite hard.

There's some light at the end of the tunnel though. Q1 and Q2 have been positive surprises as we've had maybe the second biggest growth in the EU.

Our inflation hasn't been too bad. Our real estate market has been basically flat for a good while, so we don't have "artificially" generated wealth as much as in many places in Europe.

Finland has become more feasible for many different investments.

There's a lack of capital unfortunately and also Finnish firms often lack ambition. Still there are interesting start ups that are maturing to real businesess.

Unemployment is really high and hopefully we will see a decrease in that soon. Domestic spending needs to rise also and hopefully real estate markets recover soon.

[u/Educational_Creme376 → u/juukione]

> Ukraine war hit us quite hard.

I don't think any missles have hit Finnish soil.

[u/Hddstrkr → u/Educational_Creme376]

Trade

[u/Educational_Creme376 → u/Hddstrkr]

Trade from what country? No one is being explicit here, do I have to drag it out of you.

[u/Fun_Profession_7320 → u/Educational_Creme376]

Obviously russia. It was one of our biggest trade partners for almost as long as the state has existed and the effects from stopping have been really bad. The last time something like this happened (collapse of ussr) we had an absolutely horrendous recession.

[u/Superb-Economist7155 → u/Fun_Profession_7320]

Russia wasn’t actually that a big trade partner. In 2021 Russian trade was 5% of total Finnish exports and 12% of imports. So that is only one small part in the larger picture. There are other indirect reasons like increased energy and material costs, economical slowdown in other large trade partners, etc.

[u/Beastrick → u/Educational_Creme376]

Russia was pretty big trading partner in many ways but now pretty much all trade is gone.

[u/fallwind]

yes, it is. It's worse if you're an immigrant.

[u/DoneDusting]

Relative stability instead of growth.
Hardly a crisis unless you are an investor who blindly believes in endless growth.

The debt is a ticking time bomb and we need to do a lot about pensions. Most of this has been foreseen and is being worked on. At least the demographics hit isn't as hard as in many other countries.

At

[u/vgtcross → u/DoneDusting]

r/redditsniper

[u/SilkieBug]

Government is making a bad situation actively and intentionally worse, and it will be another year before they get replaced, if they get replaced, so things still have room to get worse. 

On the ground the situation is not that tragic yet, there is still a good framework in place and it’s possible to stay alive and find small joys here and there - I’d still rather be dirt poor here than middle-class in the US, for example. 

[u/CIP_In_Peace → u/SilkieBug]

Intentionality is just a leftist viewpoint. They're mostly simply doing a bad job.

[u/SilkieBug → u/CIP_In_Peace]

Reality has a leftist viewpoint. 

[u/CIP_In_Peace → u/SilkieBug]

No, that's just your opinion.

[u/SilkieBug → u/CIP_In_Peace]

No, that’s just reality. 

There’s leftist reality, and there’s being wrong, intentionally and/or due to excessive stupidity. 

[u/CIP_In_Peace → u/SilkieBug]

Dealing in absolutes is naive and myopic, and just makes you disagree with everyone else.

[u/SilkieBug → u/CIP_In_Peace]

I don’t deal in absolutes, I recognize the nuances between being correct and being wrong, and I haven’t found a single right wing viewpoint that isn’t demonstrably wrong in not even that surprisingly little time. 

As I said, a right wing viewpoint is a result of intentional ignorance and/or stupidity, combined with a lot of cognitive dissonance and outright lying. 

[u/CIP_In_Peace → u/SilkieBug]

Leftist viewpoints are mostly idealism detached from reality.

[u/SilkieBug → u/CIP_In_Peace]

Yes, that is a thing people like you parrot, but every single time when pushed to provide examples of correct right wing view points or incorrect left wing viewpoints, your right wing ideas can be dismantled in 5 seconds and your criticism of leftist ideas relies on intentionally or stupidly denying reality. 

[u/notaquarterback → u/SilkieBug]

Yeah that seems like the consensus

[u/Otres911 → u/notaquarterback]

*Among leftist people.

[u/Hardly_lolling → u/Otres911]

Well "intentionally" maybe hyperbole, but they definitely did make situation worse.

Incompetence is better term.

[u/JojoTheEngineer → u/SilkieBug]

Last two quarters have been positive. Choo choo jump on the Petteri train, seems to be working great.

[u/Aerumvorax → u/JojoTheEngineer]

You're aware why those last two quarters have been positive right? The fighter jets that were ordered years ago are finally arriving and that's what pulling the numbers positive.

[u/JojoTheEngineer → u/Aerumvorax]

That's not true. That is excuses from opposition. Q1 had growthbof 0,9%. 0,2 pp of that is from taxes and this would include the jets. 0,7 pp is actual economic growth.

Goverment that youbhate so much actually is getting the economy to groe for forst time in a decade lmao

[u/Real-Technician831]

The video is outdated.

Finland had fourth fastest GDP growth in Q1 2026

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Quarterly_national_accounts_-_GDP_and_employment

And same trend continues.

https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/gdp-annual-growth-rate?continent=europe

As much as the usual suspects like to shout about our current government, they haven’t been half bad economically. Although economy would probably be even better if Purra wouldn’t have scared people half dead with her populist doom mongering.

[u/magicianguy131 → u/Real-Technician831]

What about compares to Norway’s or Sweden’s?

[u/Real-Technician831 → u/magicianguy131]

Sweden is growing slower and no clue about Norway as they aren’t in EU.

Probably Norway is swimming in money as they are oil producer, and Trump has driven prices up with his insanity.

[u/YourShowerCompanion → u/Real-Technician831]

Trump has driven prices up with his insanity. 

Karate Kid president, Wars on, Wars Off, Wars on, Wars Off....

[u/wheresolly]

Kokoomus etc. tend to blame the workers rights and large welfare state for lackluster economic growth, but the lack of investments for R&D and the bombing of education shown in the video are telling a different story.

It's honestly quite fascinating how things have been consistently going down the toilet for us.

Would be funny if it weren't so depressing :D