The State Treasury has published its annual review on Finland’s central government debt management. The review focuses on central government debt management in 2017, providing an overview of the funding activities, cash management and debt management.
“The Republic of Finland celebrated its 100th birthday as a sovereign state in 2017. Central government debt management has been a fundamental part of the Finnish success story for the century,” Director of Finance Teppo Koivisto writes in the review. “The central government’s ability to fund, particularly in times of stress, has provided crucial fiscal flexibility for the state, allowing the government to overcome even the most severe challenges.”
In 2017, the State Treasury raised EUR 20.2 billion on international capital markets. Of this sum, EUR 17.1 billion was used to finance maturing debt while the net borrowing was EUR 3.1 billion. Finland’s central government debt was EUR 105.8 billion at the end of 2017, or 47.1 per cent in relation to GDP.
Guest authors in the review are Juha Kilponen, Head of Forecasting at the Bank of Finland, and Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo, Head of the Structural Policy Unit at the Ministry of Finance.
In his article “Is Finland out of the woods?” Kilponen writes about the Finnish economy during and after the global financial crisis. Hakola-Uusitalo focuses on reforms that aim to increase productivity and foster employment in Finland.
The Debt Management Annual Review 2017 is available online at www.treasuryfinland.fi/annualreview2017.