Finland: The economy grows at a robust pace in September
Economic activity grew a working-day adjusted 3.2% in September compared to the same month last year, up from the revised 2.6% expansion in August (previously reported: +2.3% year-on-year).
The economy was driven by a more upbeat sector-by-sector performance. Services production, the largest output category in Finland, expanded 1.7%, up from 1.5% in August. Secondary production, which includes the manufacturing and construction sectors, grew 6.9%, up from 5.6%. Primary production, which captures the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors, increased 3.2% (August: +1.3% yoy).
A month-on-month comparison shows that economic activity on a seasonally-adjusted basis expanded 0.6% in September, up from the revised 0.5% in August (previously reported: +0.2%). Average year-on-year growth in economic activity ticked up to 2.5% in September from 2.4% from August.
Taking the third quarter as a whole, the economy is preliminarily estimated to have grown a working-day adjusted 2.2% compared to the same quarter a year earlier, which is down from 2.5% in the second quarter. In seasonally-adjusted terms, economic activity increased a preliminary 0.3% in Q3 compared to the previous quarter, matching Q2’s quarter-on-quarter growth.