Besides competitive open sector and strong growth of exports, the persistent current account surpluses reflect a decline in the investment ratio after the crisis of the early 1990s. The corporate sector has adopted a more cautious investment policy, reducing its debt exposure and increasing its capital buffers. Productivity of investment seems to have increased significantly as well.
Another conspicuous part of the balance-of-payments developments of the last years has been the unprecedented growth of both inward and outward portfolio investment ever since Finland joined the EMU. As a consequence of international diversification of investors' portfolios, non-residents' holdings of shares in the Finnish Stock Exchange rose to over 70% of the total market capitalisation already in 2000.