Based on their financial audit, the final central government accounts for 2019 have been prepared in compliance with all relevant provisions.

The preparations of the HX Fighter and Squadron 2020 projects have been thorough. However, the estimated total costs of the projects could be more transparent.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment should systematically monitor the results of municipal employment experiments during the ongoing government term, recommends the National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) in its audit. In addition, high-quality impact assessments should be made of the experiments. This would promote employment and the effectiveness of employment services.

Sustainable development has been included as a cross-sectoral theme in the state budget since 2018. The National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) has launched a mapping project to examine the framework conditions and best practices of phenomenon-based budgeting supporting sustainable development. The mapping project is not an audit.

The coronavirus is spreading in the economy even faster than among people. While the fight against the coronavirus is increasing municipalities’ social and health care costs, their tax revenue is falling. The Association of Finnish Municipalities estimates that local government finances will weaken by at least EUR 1.5 billion in 2020. The state announced that it will support local government finances immediately by more than EUR 500 million. In addition, the third supplementary budget to be adopted in May will provide at least EUR 1 billion of further support. This article is part of a series of blog posts dealing with the economic impacts of the coronavirus.

Assessments of the economic impacts of the corona crisis differ considerably from one another. The crisis is hitting particularly hard the service sector, which has provided stability during many previous recessions. It has affected the labour market untypically fast. This is particularly worrying from the perspective of domestic demand. What we need now desperately is such measures to fight the pandemic that would enable the wheels of the economy to turn. This article is part of a series of blog posts dealing with the economic impacts of the coronavirus.