Helsinki (14.02.2009 - Juhani Artto) The economic forecast of the Labour Institute for Economic Reasearch (LIER) is the most pessimistic of all recent forecasts on Finnish economy.

According to LIER's forecast, published on 3 February, the GDP will shrink by 3.7 per cent this year and by slightly less than one per cent in 2010. This year unemployment will climb to 7.4 per cent and the next year to 8.8 per cent. Employment will weaken in the two years by 100,000 persons, LIER forecasts.