Finland clings to happiness crown as economic gloom deepens

Bangkok Post Group

Finland is grappling with economic stagnation, rising joblessness and strained public finances, but still managed to secure the title of world's happiest country for the eighth year in a row in this year's annual World Happiness Report. - REUTERS

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00:00Harsh economic headwinds are sending a chill through the world's happiest country.

00:06But after a thousand days of unemployment, 33-year-old Juho Petka Paloma hasn't let Finland's problems get him down.

00:14The former video producer took part in a bring-your-own-food protest on the steps of parliament.

00:20I'm here obviously to celebrate something that I never wanted to celebrate in the first place.

00:26Finland is fighting with economic stagnation, rising joblessness and strained public finances.

00:33But it still managed to secure the title of world's happiest country for the eighth year in a row in this year's annual World Happiness Report.

00:42Experts say its success is partly due to a generous welfare state,

00:47but that is now being trimmed back as the government deals with surging social costs of an ageing population.

00:54Finland's export-dependent economy has also struggled since the foam business of Nokia,

01:00once Europe's most valuable company, collapsed in 2014.

01:04Sanctions on neighbouring Russia over its war in Ukraine have also hit exports and tourism,

01:10while uncertainty over tariffs and global trade present a further challenge.

01:15The Bank of Finland forecasts economic growth of 0.3% this year, down from 0.4% last year.

01:24Unemployment is among the worst in the EU at nearly 10%.

01:28The European Commission is expected to decide whether to propose placing Finland in what it calls an excessive deficit procedure.

01:36It forecasts Finland will have a budget deficit above the 3% EU limit for the next three years.

01:42But there's more to happiness than economics.

01:45The report's founding editor said evaluations that people report in the happiness survey

01:50are determined more by factors like resilience and the ability to deal collaboratively and constructively in bad times.

01:58During his long jobless spell, Palomar has looked to a free community sauna run and funded by volunteers.

02:06Sauna is like a place where everyone's so equal, especially if you go to a public swimming pool and everybody's naked there.

02:14All the men are in their own sauna, all the women are in their sauna.

02:17So you cannot say, based on someone's appearance, what they do for a living.

02:23Survey data for next year, collected by an analytics company and seen by Reuters,

02:29shows no significant fluctuations in Finn's reported happiness.

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