Finland’s economy contracted at a slower-than-expected pace in the three months ended September, after expanding in the previous two quarters, preliminary figures from Statistics Finland showed Friday.

Gross domestic product fell a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent quarterly in the third quarter, just below economists’ expectations for a 0.6 percent decline.

In the second quarter, the economy grew 0.4 percent, which was revised up from 0.2 percent.

On an annual basis, GDP dropped a working-day-adjusted 0.2 percent in the three-month period September, reversing a 0.7 percent growth in the previous three months, revised up from a 0.1 percent of rise reported earlier.

On the production side, the volume of total value added generated by all industries decreased by 0.4 percent from the preceding quarter and by 0.3 percent from a year ago

In the third quarter, total demand fell by 0.6 percent from the prior quarter and by 1.8 percent from the same period last year. Contraction of exports and gross fixed capital formation lowered demand in the national economy.

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