Nearly all Finnish municipalities ended 2020 in the black due to coronavirus subsidies from the central government.
Just 27 municipalities in mainland Finland had budget deficits last year. In the previous year, the figure was 223.
The country has 310 municipalities, including 16 mostly small ones in the autonomous Åland Islands.
Even those municipalities that went into the red generally had modest deficits of a few million euros, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA) said on Wednesday.
Altogether the state paid municipalities about three billion euros in coronavirus subsidies.
All told, local authorities reported surpluses of about 1.7 billion euros last year. AFLRA chief economist Minna Punakallio points out that only part of municipal costs related to the pandemic have been seen yet.
She predicts that a significant part of the economic brunt will hit local authorities this year and next, and that they cannot count on receiving significant new subsidies, so the surpluses may be spent soon.
Most furloughs of municipal workers cancelled
Along with state subsidies, municipal expenditures only rose slightly. Spending was reduced by closures of municipal services for part of last year.
"Last year, more than half of Finland's municipalities and joint municipal authorities made cuts in personnel costs and underwent co-determination negotiations," says the association's CEO, Minna Karhunen.
The association says there were a record number of furloughs of local public-sector workers last year, but most were cancelled thanks to state subsidies.
According to Karhunen, tax revenues also grew more than expected. Just over 50 municipalities raised their tax rates last year.
The state also supported municipalities with a 10 percent increase in the corporate tax distribution.
So far, the government has earmarked about 2.5 billion euros in municipal pandemic subsidies for this year. However most of this is to be paid in reimbursement for specific costs rather than in outright grants as it was last year, so some local authorities will benefit more than others.