And even though the latest employment report was somewhat disappointing, private sector payrolls expanded, on average, by about 210,000 per month in the first quarter, up from gains averaging around 150,000 per month during most of 2011. Other labor market indicators have shown similar improvement. This news is certainly welcome, yet it must be kept in perspective.
Perhaps you can already guess that the answer is negative. Unfortunately, in some important respects, the Finnish economy is not doing well. Developments during the past 5 years have revealed vulnerabilities in the economy. Since the autumn of 2008, Finnish growth performance has been disappointing – weaker than the euro area average. Finnish GDP is now 5% smaller than it was in mid-2008.