The President,  Sauli Niinistö on Friday said that the domestic affairs are the main concern for Finland when the leaders of European Nations are in arguments following the remarks of British premier regarding holding a referendum to decide its membership in European Union.

In an interview with the CNN television during the ongoing World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, the Finland president also warned about the impact of cutting benefits from the human angel.

He, however, said that the Finland is not worried about the statement of the British prime minister David Cameron.

Niinistö said that in 2013, the biggest challenge for Finland remains in its own borders.

(Link to the full interview of the president is http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2013/01/25/davos-quest-niinisto-finland-president-riskometer.cnn)

“We should take more and more care of social cohesion so that we don’t drop people out of society,” said the Finland president.

He said that it is important to understand that cutting benefits always hurt the people.

Pointing out some previous issues regarding facing difficulties, Niinistö said that Europe – as well as Finland – needs to remember these lessons.

“We have to keep in mind ... when we recover from this crisis ... that those who have lost have rightful compensation before those who haven’t lost,”  the president warned.

Earlier, Germany and France have warned  the UK Prime Minister David Cameron that Britain cannot pick and choose EU membership terms after he pledged a referendum.

Cameron said a poll would be held if the Conservatives were returned to power at the next general election, which is expected in 2015 and voters would be asked to choose between renegotiated membership or exiting.

Germany said the UK could not "cherry-pick" while France said "a la carte" membership was not on the table.

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.