At the same time, the Prime Minister’s party, Sanna Marini’s Social Democrats, believe that the debt development is manageable without major cuts.
Quick debt
In the 21st century, Finland got into debt at a fast pace. The share of debt in gross domestic product has increased to more than 70 percent. This means that the interest alone is starting to be a significant expense item.
On the other hand, if you compare Finland to other member states of the European Union, the situation is not particularly alarming yet, because Finland is pretty much at the average level of the EU. However, the difference to Sweden or Denmark is significant.
– Here it is a bit of a question that we like to compare ourselves to other Nordic countries, says Professor Niku Määttänen from the University of Helsinki.
– And then the debt sustainability also seems relatively weaker.
The age structure is stressful
However, what makes the situation worrisome is that the development of Finland’s age structure will burden the state’s economy more and more in the future. Simply put, the number of taxpayers does not increase while the number of elderly people increases significantly.
