Finland Times

The Finnish economy will remain fragile with a growth rate standing at 0.3 percent, Finnish Broadcast YLE reported Wednesday, citing the forecast from Nordea Bank.

In its latest Economic Outlook, the bank said although signs of recovery in the global economy has been observed, the performance of the Finnish economy remains weak and its GDP has failed to increase for almost two consecutive years.

The bank therefore lowered its forecast for the Finnish economy in 2014 from 2.2 percent to 0.3 percent, which lags significantly behind the predicted average growth rate for the euro zone which will expand by 1.2 percent.

However, Finland will see its GDP growth up by 2.0 percent in 2015, if the international demand for the country's exports returns to rise.

The outlook attributed the reasons behind Finland's weak economic prospect to negative domestic demand and foreign trade, as well as poor investment outlook. The ongoing conflicts in Crimea also will impose a negative impact on the Finnish economy.

Nordea's outlook indicated that the country's economy cannot bear further tax rises. The bank urged the government to make savings through cutting public spending, but not by raising taxes.

Meanwhile, the bank said in the outlook that the world economy is heading for better times, but the recovery still seems fragile with an increase of 3.7 percent in 2014 and 3.9 percent in 2015.