STORY: Harsh economic headwinds are sending a chill through the world’s happiest country.But after 1,000 days of unemployment, 33-year-old Juho-Pekka Palomaa hasn’t let Finland’s problems get him down.The former video producer took part in a bring-your-own-food protest on the steps of parliament.“I’m here obviously to celebrate something that I never wanted to celebrate in the first place.”Finland is fighting with economic stagnation, rising joblessness and strained public finances.But 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.Experts say its success is partly due to a generous welfare state.But that is now being trimmed back as the government deals with surging social costs of an aging population.Finland’s export-dependent economy has also struggled since the phone business of Nokia, once Europe’s most valuable company, collapsed in 2014.Sanctions on neighbouring Russia over its war in Ukraine have also hit exports and tourism.While uncertainty over tariffs and global trade present a further challenge.The Bank of Finland forecasts economic growth of 0.3% this year, down from 0.4% last year.Unemployment is among the worst in the EU at nearly 10%.The European Commission is expected to decide whether to propose placing Finland in what it calls an “Excessive Deficit Procedure”.It forecast Finland will have a budget deficit above the 3% EU limit for the next three years.But there is more to happiness than economics.The report’s founding editor said life evaluations that people report in the happiness survey are determined more by factors like resilience and the ability to “deal collaboratively and constructively in bad times”.During his long jobless spell, Palomaa has looked to a free community sauna run and funded by volunteers.”Sauna is like a place where everyone is so equal, especially if you go to a public swimming pool and everybody’s naked, there all the men are in their own sauna, all the women are in their sauna, so you cannot say based on someone’s appearance what they do for a living.”Survey data for next year collected by an analytics company and seen by Reuters shows no significant fluctuations in Finns’ reported happiness.
