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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (14173)	10/28/2004 10:27:19 AM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

IMF urges Finland to tighten fiscal belt to pay for aging population Thursday, October 28, 2004 2:05:26 PM afxpress.com HELSINKI (AFX) - The International Monetary Fund urged the Finnish government to cut public spending and boost employment in order to pay for the country's rapidly aging population "The aging of the Finnish population is among the most rapid in the EU, and by 2010 some 50 percent of the working age population will be over 50 years old," said Subash Thakur, who headed a team of IMF economists conducting an annual check-up on the Finnish economy Finland faces major economic challenges in a swiftly changing global and domestic environment, and needs to make tough policy choices if Finns want to maintain their welfare state at the current level, he pointed out The biggest threat to the Finnish welfare state is the burgeoning number of pensioners and the continued high unemployment, Thakur noted at In order to meet the increase in welfare expenses caused by the growing number of retiress Finland needs to cut unemployment - currently at about eight percent and nearly twice as high as in the neighboring Scandinavian countries - free up cash and increase tax revenues Finland should also trim its lavish agricultural subsidies, which mainly aim to help maintain a rural population, because it cannot afford such "waste of funds", Thakur insisted He said the government must also cut taxes on labor and income in order to spur hiring and incite employees to work more, he added The IMF did however compliment the Finnish government for meeting the global economic downturn with strong fiscal stimulus, making it possible for it to achieve what the fund expects will be 3 pct economic growth next year