A sustained increase in residential construction in 2017 has been accompanied by greater profitability for Finnish construction companies. The Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries reported that its members profit margins rose to 4.7 percent, up from the record low of 3.2 percent in 2016. Sami Pakarinen, chief economist at The Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries stated that “the momentum in new construction has enabled especially larger construction companies to improve their performance” and added that “although profits of larger construction companies improved more than those of smaller companies last year, the profitability of small and medium-sized companies remains generally at a higher level.” Although profitability is set to fall slightly in 2018, Statistics Finland expects the nation’s contractors to report sales of €28 billion in 2018.
