Helsinki | Helsinki’s economy pleasantly surprised, the city council approved the financial statements

Helsinki the city council approved the city’s 2023 financial statements on Wednesday at its last meeting of the spring term.

The financial statements are a pleasant surprise in a difficult economic situation: The result for the 2023 fiscal year was 437 million euros, which exceeded the budget’s expectations. This applies to so-called municipal Helsinki, which does not include the social welfare sector.

The result is explained by the higher tax rate in 2022 and some one-time exceptional items related to social security reform, without which the result would have been weaker than in previous years. Tax revenues for the city totaled more than two billion.

The economy also looked better than expected in the state-funded social, health and rescue industry. This was influenced, among other things, by the increase in customer fees.

Also the city’s expenditures remained on target. Last year, expenses grew by about 4.9 percent, which was less than what had been planned.

Investments were made with 849 million euros. If public transport investments are included, the amount rises to 1.35 billion euros. The investments were 99 percent financed with income financing.

No new long-term loans were raised last year. At the end of last year, the city had a loan of 906 million euros.

In the year 2023 Helsinki’s population growth was record-breaking. Last year, the population of Helsinki grew by almost 11,000 people. The last time the annual growth limit of 10,000 people was exceeded was in 1965.

As a counterweight, housing construction froze. More than 8,000 apartments were completed in accordance with the targets, but only a little over 4,000 new building permits were granted and construction started on just over 5,000 properties.

In 2023, the employment rate of Helsinki residents was 78.5 percent, which is almost one percentage point less than the year before. The number of working hours also decreased and the share of part-time employment increased compared to before.