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Minor increase in export prices
Volume of exports fell by four per cent in 2016

Publication date 21.3.2017 8.33
Press release

According to Finnish Customs’ foreign trade statistics, the value of Finland’s goods exports went down by four per cent in 2016. The value of exports amounted to 51.8 billion euros. The fall in the value of exports was all due to a decrease of four per cent in export volumes. Export prices increased by 0.4 per cent. The value of imports remained almost level with the year before and amounted to 54.7 billion euros. In terms of volume, imports grew by only 0.1 per cent in 2016, while import prices increased by 0.5 per cent. In 2015, the value of exports also fell by four per cent and the volume of imports decreased by 4.7 per cent. Export prices increased by 0.7 per cent that year. The value of imports fell by six per cent due to the drop of 4.7 per cent in volume and 0.8 per cent in prices.

Compared to the previous year, there was a significant increase in the trade deficit last year. The trade balance showed a deficit of almost 2.9 billion euros in 2016. The deficit was the largest since 2011, when the trade deficit amounted to 3.7 billion euros. The deficit in the trade with EU countries increased to more than 3.3 billion euros last year. In the trade with non-EU countries, however, there was a surplus of 459 million euros. In 2015, the trade deficit was only 613 million euros, and the trade with EU countries showed a deficit of 2.3 billion euros that year, but the trade with non-EU countries was in surplus by almost 1.7 billion euros. The deficit in 2014 amounted to almost 1.8 billion euros. That year, the extra-EU trade deficit amounted to 70 million euros and that of EU trade to 1.7 billion euros.

Exports were lagging in almost all the main sectors in 2016. Exports of forest industry products fell by two per cent. Exports of machinery and equipment decreased by four per cent. Exports of transport equipment saw the steepest decline of the main sectors, 18 per cent, but there was also a drop in exports of metal industry products, which fell by seven per cent. By contrast, the value of exports of oil products saw a rise of 11 per cent, but exports from the rest of the chemical industry went down by five per cent. Exports of instruments and meters went up by four per cent, and exports of mobile technology networking devices by 14 per cent. Last year, total imports remained at the same level as the previous year. In 2016, imports of capital goods grew by six per cent. Imports of consumer goods increased by four per cent. There was a six per cent decline in imports of energy products, whereas imports of intermediate goods went down by two per cent.

The value of exports to the EU countries decreased by four per cent in 2016. Exports to the euro area also fell by four per cent. Exports to non-EU countries likewise shrank by four per cent. In 2015, exports to EU countries decreased by one per cent, while exports to non-EU countries decreased by eight per cent. In 2016, imports from all EU countries were at the same level as the year before. In 2015, imports from the EU increased by one per cent. Imports from non-EU countries increased by one per cent in 2016.  In 2015, imports from outside the EU went down by 15 per cent.

The EU countries’ share of Finland’s exports grew slightly in 2016, from 59.0 per cent in the previous year to 59.2 per cent. As for imports, the EU countries’ share decreased slightly, from 62.6 per cent in the previous year to 62.2 per cent. The shares in the trade with countries outside the EU changed correspondingly. Last year, the extra-EU trade had a 40.8 per cent share of exports and a 37.8 per cent share of imports, while the corresponding shares for the previous year were 41.0 per cent of exports and 37.4 per cent of imports.

Finnish Customs, Statistics
Enquiries:
Telasuo, Christina tel. +358 40 332 1828
Kaarna, Anssi tel. +358 40 332 8153
Riikonen, Johanna tel. +358 40 332 1824
E-mail: firstname.surname@tulli.fi
Statistics bulletin