Investment weakened by uncertainty and the structure of the Finnish economy

Abstract

Global uncertainty is weakening growth in business fixed investment in Finland, and its impacts may be felt with a lag. Cyclical fluctuations caused by the uncertainty, however, conceal domestic, structural factors that have weakened investment throughout the 2000s. These factors include weak productivity growth, population ageing and structural changes in the economy towards a services economy. Productivity, in particular, can be influenced by many economic policy measures. Of these measures, innovation policy, for example, plays an important role.