Finland emerges as the 'new sick man of Europe'

The third-quarter numbers show that Finland - which has taken a tough line against eurozone bail-outs for southern european economies - managed to perform worse than Greece, where the economy shrank by 0.5pc. The European Commission estimates that Finland will manage just 0.7pc growth next year. The country has also been plagued by political paralysis after elections this year brought a new centre-right coalition to power. Helskinki's conservative alliance, led by prime minister Juha Sipilä, came close to collapsing over healthcare reforms earlier this month. Mr Sipilä has vowed to embark on a bold but "painful" austerity blitz to slash government spending and carry out structural reforms to get the country of 5.5 million back on its feet. more