Finland Times

Helsinki, January 29- The consumer confidence in overall economy has been increased slightly in the first month of 2013 compared to the previous months of November and December, 2012, according to a report of Statistics Finland.

The indicator, however, is still clearly bellow the long-term average of 12.5, said the consumer survey report released here on Monday.

Although 29 percent of consumers believed in January that Finland’s economic situation would improve in the coming twelve months, 32 percent of them thought that the country’s economy would deteriorate.

The consumer confidence indicator stood at 4.5 in this month, which was 3.5 in December and 1.0 in November 2012.

According to the report, 23 percent of consumers believed that their own economy would improve while 15 percent feared it would worsen over the year.

Fourteen percent of consumers expected that general unemployment would decrease in Finland over the next 12 months, while 59 per cent of them believed it would increase.

In January, eight percent of employed persons believed that their personal threat of unemployment had lessened over the past few months, whereas 22 per cent thought it had grown. Twelve months ago the respective proportions were 14 and 16 per cent.

As many as 48 percent of employed people thought the threat of unemployment had remained unchanged and 23 percent felt that they were not threatened by unemployment at all.

In January, consumers predicted that consumer prices would go up by 2.9 per cent over the next 12 months. In December, the predicted inflation rate was 3.1 per cent, and its long-term average is 2.2 per cent.

The data was prepared based on the Statistics Finland’s Consumer Survey, for which 1,449 people resident in Finland were interviewed in between January 2 and 18 January, the report added.