Private sector labour costs increased by 2.4 per cent in April-June2011 when compared with the respective period of the year before. Labour costs excluding one-off items, such as performance-based bonuses, rose by 2.2 per cent compared with the respective period of the year before. In the corresponding period the index of wage and salary earnings rose by 3.1 per cent in the private sector.
In August 2011 a total of 16,979 new motor vehicles were registered, of which 11,418 were automobiles. First registrations increased by 8.9 per cent from the corresponding month of the previous year. In August the number of new passenger cars registered was 10,019, which was 16.4 per cent up from the year before. The share of new diesel-driven passenger cars was 42.1 per cent. These data are based on the Vehicular and Driver Data Register of the Finnish Transport Safety Agency and they have been produced by Statistics Finland. The numbers are exclusive of the vehicles on the Åland Islands.
According to preliminary data of Statistics Finland, in the April to June period of 2011 the volume of Finlands gross domestic product increased by 0.6 per cent from the previous quarter. Compared to the second quarter of 2010, working-day adjusted GDP grew by 2.9 per cent. The second quarter had the same number of working days as twelve months before.
A great number of Finnish residents made a trip abroad to Estonia, Sweden or Russia in July. Finnish residents made 446,000 leisure trips or cruises with overnight stays to our neighbouring countries, which is 26 per cent more than in the corresponding period of one year ago. France also increased its popularity in July. Finnish residents made 1,009,000 leisure trips with paid accommodation in Finland. This is six per cent less than in the previous year’s July, when domestic travelling was record busy.
According to preliminary data of Statistics Finland’s statistics on building and dwelling production, in the second quarter of 2011 building permits were granted for a total of 15 million cubic metres, which is 29.8 per cent more than one year ago. The growth was biggest in the cubic volume covered by permits for commercial and office buildings. The cubic volume covered by permits for residential buildings grew by around one quarter.
According to Statistics Finland, completers of curriculum-based vocational education provided by educational institutions numbered 33,800 in 2010. The number of students was around 0,7 per cent up on the previous year. Fifty-three per cent of the qualifiers were men. The largest number, or 43 per cent, of the qualifications were attained in the field of technology and transport. The next largests numbers were attained in the fields of welfare, health and physical exercise (15 per cent) tourism, catering and economics (12 per cent) and business economics and administration (10 per cent). The shares of other fields of education were below 10 per cent.
Consumer confidence in the economy weakened clearly in August compared with both one month and one year ago. The consumer confidence indicator stood at 5.1 in August, whereas in July it was 11.3 and in June 11.4. In last year’s August, the confidence indicator received the value 21.9. Its long-term average is 13.3. The data are based on Statistics Finlands Consumer Survey, for which 1,446 people resident in Finland were interviewed between 1 and 19 August.
The stock of central government guarantees stood at EUR 21.2 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2011. At the end of June, the stock of guarantees was nearly three per cent lower than one year previously and good three per cent higher than at the end of the previous quarter. During the second quarter of the year, new central government guarantees were granted to the amount of EUR 1.5 billion. The majority of the guarantees were granted to enterprises. Central government guarantees include all guarantees for which the state is ultimately liable.
According to Statistics Finlands retail trade flash estimate, retail trade sales increased by 3.7 per cent in July 2011 from July 2010. Over the same time period, the volume of sales grew by 0.1 per cent.
According to Statistics Finlands preliminary data, prices of dwellings in old blocks of flats and terraced houses fell by 0.6 per cent in the whole country compared with the previous month. In Greater Helsinki prices went down by 1.3 per cent and in the rest of the country prices remained almost unchanged. Compared with the corresponding period of the year before, prices went up by 2.5 per cent in the whole country. In Greater Helsinki the rise amounted to 3.9 per cent and in the rest of the country to 1.4 per cent.