God willing, we are optimistic that with the synergy of these policy steps, we can realize national economic recovery in 2021. Vaccination and the discipline of COVID-19 protocols are prerequisite conditions for national economic recovery. It needs to be emphasized again that the epicenter of the problems we are facing is the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, the central government deficit remained large by both historical and international standards. The indebtedness of households and firms again eased considerably and the external indebtedness of the total economy continued to improve. The Bank of Finland continued to relax monetary policy in 1996.