BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/22
The decline in travel and tourism exports to Russia also seems to have slowed in the first quarter. The number of border crossings was still down by 8 % y-o-y and overnight stays of Russians contracted by 18 %. Last year, Finland’s income from Russian tourists fell by nearly 40 % to under €600 million. Statistics Finland’s preliminary figures, however, show that the combined value of most other Finnish services exports to Russia actually rose last year.
The value of goods imports shrank on-year in 1Q16 by a third to €1.2 billion. Much of the contraction was due to lower oil prices and reduced crude oil import volumes. In contrast, import volumes increased for e.g. many metals and raw timber. Russia accounted for 9 % of Finnish goods imports and was Finland’s third most important import provider.