Facts and Figures
	Economy
	Direct Marketing

Fact and Figures

Source: Foreign Office

Economy

Finland is a highly developed industrial country whose GDP/per capita income lies a little above the average for the EU. Germany is Finland's major trading partner in both directions (in 2002, 11.8% of Finnish exports and 14.5% of Finnish imports). The subsequent order of importance for suppliers is: Sweden, Russia, the USA and the UK, and for buyers: the UK, the USA, Sweden and Russia. 54.0% of Finnish exports in 2002 went to EU countries, 55.7% of imports originated there.

Having experienced growth in GDP of 5.1% in 2000, about double the average rate for the eurozone, Finland's growth rate fell in 2001 to 1.2%, rising again in 2002 to 2.2%. Both the government and economic research institutes expect the economy to recover and estimate growth at 1.5% for 2003. The unemployment rate is approx. 9.3%.

The budget for 2003 has a volume of 36.1 bn. euros and new indebtedness of 155 bn. euros is planned. Due to other non-budget income, a surplus of 0.4% results. The overall national balance shows a surplus of 2.7% of GDP.

The national debt should fall to 42.4% of GDP by the end of 2003. The inflation rate in 2002 was 1.8% and has been estimated at 1.2% for 2003. The budget draft for 2004 has a volume of 37.2 bn. euros. The euro was introduced in Finland on January 1, 2002.

The most important sector of the Finnish economy is the service sector in which 67.7% (2002) of the labor force were employed (of which approx. 39.0% in the public service); in industry and construction the figure is 26.9% and in agriculture and forestry (incl. fishing and hunting) 5.3% (both for 2002).

The traditional mainstay of the Finnish economy, the forest industry (paper, cellulose, timber) continues to account for 26.5% of exports. Various branches of the metal, mechanical engineering and electrical industries accounted for 27.1% of exports. In 2002 electronic goods accounted for 27.5% of Finnish exports with Nokia, the mobile telephone manufacturer, still taking a major share (25.0%) although its growth rates of 25-35% a year have fallen to approx. 10%.

Source: Foreign Office

Direct Marketing

The address offerings and the number of providers may be limited in Finland, but there are several high-quality address databases available. One of the most well-known sources of addresses is the official register of residents. This is the official resident register kept by the government, holding a potential of about five million addresses and a large number of different selection criteria.

B2C Marketing
When private addresses are used, the name of the owner of the addresses must always be stated on the mailing.

B2B Marketing
In using company addresses, it is recommended that the name of the address-owner be stated on the mailing.

Source: Swiss Post