Editing Economy of Finland (section)

===Euro Membership===
The American economist and ''[[The New York Times]]'' columnist [[Paul Krugman]] has suggested that the short term costs of euro membership to the Finnish economy outweigh the large gains caused by greater integration with the European economy. Krugman notes that Sweden, which has yet to join the single currency, had similar rates of growth compared to Finland for the period since the introduction of the euro.

Membership of the euro protects Finland from currency fluctuations, which is particularly important for small member states of the [[European Union]] like Finland that are highly integrated into the larger European economy.<ref>[https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/annoying-euro-apologetics/ Annoying Euro Apologetics] P. Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal, ''[[The New York Times]]'', 22 July 2015</ref> If Finland had retained its own currency, unpredictable exchange rates would prevent the country from selling its products at competitive prices on the European market. In fact, business leaders in Sweden, which is obliged to join the euro when its economy has converged with the eurozone, are almost universal in their support for joining the euro. Although Sweden's currency is not officially pegged to the euro like Denmark's currency the Swedish government maintains an unofficial peg.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11829426/Swedens-monetary-drama-could-turn-noir.html|title=Sweden's monetary drama could turn noir|first=Julia|last=Bradshaw|date=27 August 2015|access-date=29 December 2017|website=Telegraph.co.uk}}</ref> This exchange rate policy has in the short term benefited the Swedish economy in two ways; (1) much of Sweden's European trade is already denominated in euros and therefore bypasses any currency fluctuation and exchange rate losses, (2) it allows Sweden's non-euro-area exports to remain competitive by dampening any pressure from the financial markets to increase the value of the currency.

Maintaining this balance has allowed the Swedish government to borrow on the international financial markets at record low interest rates and allowed the Swedish central bank to quantitatively ease into a fundamentally sound economy. This has led Sweden's economy to prosper at the expense of less sound economies who have been impacted by the 2008 financial crisis. Sweden's economic performance has therefore been slightly better than Finland's since the financial crisis of 2008. Much of this disparity has, however, been due to the economic dominance of [[Nokia]], Finland's largest company and Finland's only major multinational. Nokia supported and greatly benefited from the euro and the European single market, particularly from a common European digital mobile phone standard ([[GSM]]), but it failed to adapt when the market shifted to mobile computing.

One reason for the popularity of the euro in Finland is the memory of a 'great depression' which began in 1990, with Finland not regaining it competitiveness until approximately a decade later when Finland joined the single currency. Some American economists like Paul Krugman claim not to understand the benefits of a single currency and allege that poor economic performance is the result of membership of the single currency. These economists do not, however, advocate separate currencies for the states of the United States, many of which have quite disparate economies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/the-finnish-disease/|title=The Finnish Disease|website=Krugman.blogs.nytimes.com|date=June 2015|access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref>

{{GraphChart|width=650|height=250|xAxisTitle=year|yAxisTitle=real GDP|xAxisFormat=3d|legend=Real GDP (YR2006=100)|type=line|yAxisMin=0|
x=2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014|
y1=100, 105.185, 105.943, 97.182, 100.090, 102.664, 101.199, 100.065, 99.660|
y2=100, 103.405, 102.829, 97.498, 103.337, 106.090, 105.786, 107.099, 109.597|
y1Title=Finland's real GDP|
y2Title=Sweden's real GDP|
colors=#b22222, #00ff7f}}