Covid-19 shrinks Finland, Denmark economies

The global coronavirus pandemic took its economic toll on Nordic countries in the second quarter, but the impact in Finland has been less severe while Denmark suffered a "historic" contraction, data showed on Friday.

Finland's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 3.2% in the period from April to June compared with the preceding three months, the national statistics office calculated.

At the same time, Danish GDP shrank by 7.4% on a quarterly basis, "the steepest fall since the start of national quarterly accounts in the early 1990s," Statistics Denmark said.

The shutdown of societies and economic activity across the globe, as governments scrambled to rein in the spread of Covid-19, has pushed many countries into deep recession.

Britain, for example, saw its economy contract by a staggering 20.4%. But Nordic countries, where the lockdowns were less strict, appear to be faring better than many of their European neighbours.

Finland's headline number was better than many analysts had predicted.

Danske Bank economist Jukka Appelqvist said Finland's modest lockdown, as well as its reliance on exports of goods such as heavy machinery or cruise ships, helped shield it from the worst of the economic fallout.

Allan Sorensen, chief economist at the Confederation of Danish Industry, said the deep contraction of Denmark's economy was "not surprising".

"Fortunately, the crisis is not due to fundamental problems in the Danish economy, so we can hopefully get it back on track quickly," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2020.

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