Government continues the preparations to improve competitiveness

On Monday 24 August Prime Minister Juha Sipilä presented the Government’s plans to tackle the estimated sustainability gap of about 10 billion in the coming years. The Government resumed the discussions on the plans during the past weekend, after the negotiations on the social contract failed on Thursday 20 August.

According to Prime Minister Sipilä, bridging the sustainability gap of 10 billion euros requires savings of four billion and structural reforms amounting to about four billion. The rest of the gap should be covered through better competitiveness, achieved by renewing the working life, moderate wage demands and measures to increase productivity.

Prime Minister Sipilä maintains that the social contract would have been greatly needed in search for economic growth. Now that the negotiations on the contract failed the Government must  find other ways to proceed.

”Getting economic growth started is the first priority. The better we succeed in renewing the working life, moderate wage demands and higher efficiency, the less additional cuts in government expenditure and tax increases will be needed”, says Prime Minister Sipilä.

Prime Minister Sipilä will bring the Government’s plan to improve competitiveness to the Parliament as a government statement by the end of September 2015. The aim is that the necessary legislation would be adopted in June 2016 at the latest

”Our economic position is so serious that there is no time to lose. However, the opportunities for Finland to overcome the great challenges are still there. Whether we succeed or not is in our own hands”, Prime Minister Sipilä stresses.

Inquiries: Markus Lahtinen, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister in Economic Affairs, tel. +358 50 491 3842 and Riina Nevamäki, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister in Political Affairs, tel. +358 40 705 2593, Prime Minister’s Office