One of Finland's biggest banks, Aktia, has raised its estimate of the nation's GDP for this year to 3.1 percent. However it predicts that pace to slow to 2.6 percent next year and 2.2 percent in 2019.
"Everything points toward 2017 becoming an economically good year in historic terms," Aktia's chief economist Heidi Schauman said on Monday.
She notes that the bank upgraded its forecast for next year, as it expects positive developments to consumption, investments and foreign trade to continue.
Aktia expects the employment rate to improve further, but not sufficiently in the bank's view, which it says dampens the consumption outlook. The number of people with jobs is not rising hand-in-hand with the employment rate, it notes, as the working-age population is shrinking.
Schauman says it is important to keep in mind the realities associated with the ageing of the population and their impact on growth potential and the public-sector economy, referred to as a sustainability gap.
Global uncertainty
Last week, Statistics Finland said that the jobless rate dropped in October to 7.3 percent, compared with 8.1 percent a year earlier and eight percent in September. The employment rate meanwhile stood at 70 percent.
On the global level, Aktia Bank foresees growth continuing at an annual rate of around 3.6 percent over the next two years, adding the caveat that such prognoses include much uncertainty.
"After six years of interest rates remaining at unusually low levels without a rise even in short-term rates, there are for the first time visible signs of rate increases during the prognosis period. We expect the first rate hike in mid-2019," Schauman says.