In October, the Confederation of Finnish Industries asked companies to evaluate their business outlook for winter 2016–2017. In the Business Tendency Survey published on Monday, the EK described that outlook as "cautious".
This year, recovery has been slight in all sectors, and in manufacturing and services the current situation is seen as weaker than normal. The only brighter spot is the construction sector where economic conditions are currently average.
Weak growth
In manufacturing, order books have recovered slightly, but are still below normal. In construction, the volume of new orders is expected to grow over the next few months.
In both manufacturing and construction, output grew slightly in early autumn. In coming months, growth is forecast to continue, but is expected to remain sluggish, especially in manufacturing. In the service sector, sales have grown somewhat and moderate growth is also forecast for the next six months.
The EK found that while the labour force has grown slightly in construction and services, it has declined somewhat in manufacturing. Overall, the labour force is expected to remain stable in coming months, though it will continue to decline a little in manufacturing.
The Business Tendency Survey is published four times a year by the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK. This latest in the series was carried out in October 2016 and received replies from 1,332 companies employing approximately 320,000 people in Finland.