Finland Unlikely to Leave Eurozone as Costs Outweigh Benefits - Official

According to the former Finnish foreign minister, the cost of Finland's exit from the eurozone is higher than any potential benefits.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova —The likelihood of Finland walking out of the eurozone is very low given that the costs would be much higher than any potential benefits from such a move, Finland’s former foreign minister told Sputnik Friday after a petition demanding a "Fixit" gathered over 50,000 signatures, the threshold needed to oblige parliament to debate holding a referendum on the matter.

"I do not see any realistic chance for Finland to leave the eurozone. One can argue with the benefit of hindsight that it was a mistake for Finland to join the euro, but now that we are in it and now that the EU seems to have managed —albeit at a high cost — to get the eurocrisis under control the costs of leaving the euro would probably be much higher than the uncertain benefits it could entail," Erkki Tuomioja said.

Last year, Finnish veteran politician Paavo Vayrynen initiated a petition demanding that a referendum be held on the country’s membership of the eurozone. The proposal was sparked by the negative growth of the country’s economy, which many attribute to Europe’s common currency.

Yet Tuomioja stressed it was unclear whether the Finnish economy would be in better shape outside the euro.

"In theory yes, but there is nothing in having your own currency which would prevent a country from mismanaging its economy," Tuomioja said.

The Finnish economy posted slight growth of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, while the country's GDP increased by 0.4 per cent in 2015 year-on-year.

Finland joined the euro area in 1999, and formally adopted the common currency in 2002.