Finland’s state budget for 2018 was announced on Thursday with few surprises in the 55.7 billion euro spending plan. Ministers plan to increase the basic state pension by fifteen euros a month, tighten alcohol taxation and boost funding for the police and the security intelligence police by a total of fifty million euros.
There are also plans to make it easier for unemployed people to study without losing out financially, and to reform Finland’s generous system of parental leave. Central government is also putting five million euros towards a trial of free early years education in 2018-19.
At present parents pay income-based fees for nursery education for under-fives, but the government wants to test whether women will return to work earlier if the payment is removed.
The budget includes plans to take on some 2.9 billion euros of additional state debt during 2018.