2018.02.2802:40:00UTC+00Finland Q4 GDP Growth Accelerates

Finland's economic growth improved in the three months ended December, after easing in the previous two quarters, preliminary figures from Statistics Finland showed Wednesday.

Gross domestic product advanced a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter, faster than the 0.2 percent rise in the third quarter, which was revised down from 0.4 percent.

During the second quarter of this year, the rate of expansion was 0.6 percent.

On the expenditure side, the volume of private consumption grew 0.7 percent over the quarter, while gross fixed capital formation dropped by 0.4 percent.

Both exports and imports climbed by 2.2 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

On a yearly basis, the economy expanded at a faster pace of 2.7 percent in the December quarter, after a 2.5 percent increase in the September quarter.

During the whole year 2017, the volume of GDP grew 3.0 percent compared with 2016.