EU predicts weakest growth for Finland in eurozone

The European Commission on Tuesday gave Finland the worst growth prospect of the 19-member eurozone in 2021, saying in its Summer 2020 Economic Forecast that the Finnish economy is likely to grow by 2.8 percent in 2021, reported Xinhua.

In the Commission predictions, Finland would start lagging behind other eurozone countries, as the overall growth in the eurozone next year is predicted at 6.1 percent.

For the current year, the European Commission predicted an 8.75 percent decline for the whole euro area, while Finland is to shrink by 6.3 percent.

The 2020 figure for Finland is better than many other European Union countries, with Italy predicted to have an 11.2-percent decline and both Spain and France, over ten percent decline.

The Commission elaborated that economic growth in Finland would rely mainly on domestic demand in 2021. It said unemployment would curb Finnish economic growth. However, the Commission noted that growth could be faster in Finland if its trading partners could recover sooner than expected.

In its previous forecast in April, the Commission had predicted a 3.7-percent growth for the Finnish economy in 2021.