The economy | Survey: Companies’ views on the economic situation have improved – “The rise has started from the bottom of the hole”

Finns companies’ views on the economic situation have improved, according to a recent report from the chambers of commerce from the survey.

Chief Economist of the Central Chamber of Commerce by Jukka Appelqvist according to the survey, there is still a long way to go to peak readings, but estimates have improved in all areas of the survey.

35 percent of the companies that responded to the survey said that their turnover had increased compared to the previous year. In May, the corresponding share was 29 percent.

Expectations about the future development of order books are also more positive than before. 27 percent of the respondents foresee an increase in the order backlog in the next six months. 22 percent expect a contraction.

“The survey supports the interpretation that the rise from the bottom of the pit has finally begun,” Appelqvist says in the announcement.

Nevertheless, 40 percent of respondents estimate their order backlog to be lower than a year ago. Almost a quarter of the respondents thought the situation was better.

“It is still difficult to describe the respondents’ assessments of the mood in their own industry as happy, but the situation is still better than in previous surveys,” states Appelqvist.

My own more than a fifth, or 21 percent, of the companies described the mood in their industry as optimistic. The share of pessimistic moods was clearly higher, i.e. 44 percent. In the previous survey, 48 percent were pessimists.

“Broad pessimism has dominated economic surveys for a long time. General moods that were better than today were last measured in May 2023, when the moods were momentarily cautiously optimistic before the strong weakening phase of the Finnish economy started.”

According to the companies, their operations are limited above all by insufficient demand at the moment. It was named by more than half of the respondents as the reason limiting their activities.

1,460 companies from different industries and from different parts of Finland responded to the Chambers of Commerce’s autumn economic survey. The survey was conducted at the end of September.