FOREST INDUSTRY PRODUCTION AND EXPORTS FOR JANUARY-JUNE 1991

During the first six months of the year the Finnish economy has rapidly fallen into recession. Total production is falling at the rate of 5 %, unemployment has reached record figures and exports are falling. In the forest industry the situation deteriorated further during spring and summer (article on pages 554-556). Forest industry production for the first six months was almost 10 % down on the same period last year. In the mechanical woodworking industry output was down by about a third, while production of pulp and paper was some 3 % down on the first six months of last year. During the same period, the value of exports fell by FIM 3.3 billion, i.e. more than 17 %. Export volumes fell by an average of almost 14 %.