Month: November 2024

Specialty and household goods trade’s expectations for the Christmas season are slightly higher than last year  

Finns’ faith in their own finances has strengthened and, at the same time, the expectations of the specialty and household goods trade for sales towards the end of the year have also improved. This year, however, Christmas trade is burdened by the tightening of VAT just before the Christmas season, which further reduces weakly developed purchasing power. The Christmas season really begins in mid-November when global campaigns also attract Finnish consumers. Although December is by far the biggest sales month for retail, November's home technology sales have already passed December's. 

The Finnish Commerce Federation is satisfied with the EU Commission’s decision to investigate the operations of the Chinese Temu 

The Finnish Commerce Federation is satisfied with the European Commission’s decision to investigate the operations of the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu. Together with other Nordic commerce sector organisations, the Finnish Commerce Federation has actively highlighted challenges related to marketplaces operating from third countries and the competitive disadvantages arising from their operations. 

Commerce provides employment and tax revenue in Finland – however, domestic specialty goods trade is affected by the government’s tax policy  

Commerce is one of the largest sectors of business life and the Finnish economy, both as an employer, a creator of economic growth and a payer of taxes. The VAT revenue generated by commerce's domestic sales is also up to half of total VAT revenue in Finland. However, the government has weakened the international competitiveness of specialty goods trade by tightening VAT, and this tightening will not be reflected in the tax revenue as the government has hoped.