R&D expenditure fell by EUR 330 million from the previous year in Finland, according to Statistics Finland.
Latest statistics on research and development compiled by Statistics Finland show that research and development expenditure amounted to EUR 6.8 billion in 2012.
R&D expenditure fell by EUR 330 million from the previous year. The drop concerned almost entirely the private sector, where the expenditure used on research and development activity contracted by EUR 350 million.
In the industry of electronics, computers and electrical equipment, R&D expenditure went down by EUR 570 million, but other industries, especially machinery and equipment, reported higher R&D expenditure than in the previous year.
Due to the decrease in R&D expenditure, the GDP share of research expenditure also diminished. In 2012, the GDP share was 3.55 per cent, having been 3.80 per cent twelve months earlier. According to Statistics Finland, in 2013 expenditure is estimated to remain more or less the same, but the GDP share is assessed to fall to 3.49 per cent.
R&D expenditure has grown fast from the mid-1990s until 2008, when the real value of expenditure was over 2.5 times as high as in 1995, according to Statistics Finland. Annual average real growth was around 13 per cent until the turn of the millennium.
