Statistics on business subsidies: documentation of statistics

The statistics on business subsidies present subsidies granted to enterprises by different institutions in a single set of statistics. Business subsidies are considered necessary to correct market distortions. In accordance with the principles of the European Union, competition must be free and business subsidies are considered to distort competition and therefore granting of business subsidies is restricted. There are no international rules on compiling statistics on business subsidies. The statistics on business subsidies are part of the Official Statistics of Finland.

Temporal changes in business subsidies and their breakdown by industry and enterprise size category are examined in the statistics on business subsidies. Subsidies are classified according to the purpose of subsidy according to Statistics Finland's own classification. The size and turnover of enterprises granted business subsidies are compared with all enterprises entered in the Business Register.
 

Enterprises operating in Finland that are entitled to business subsidies comprise the statistical population.

Recipient of business subsidy, which is a legal unit.

The subsidies are given in euros and the recipients are examined on the basis of numbers and ratios.

The reference period of the statistics is a calendar year.

Business subsidies are examined at the level of Finland as a whole and there are no regional classifications.

The statistics contain data on business subsidies granted and paid by institutions that finance business subsidies. Subsidies are granted by the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland, Business Finland, the Development and Administration Centre (KEHA Centre) for Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Employment and Economic Development Offices, the Energy Authority, Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Employment and Economic Development Offices, Finnvera, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Finnish Food Authority, the State Treasury, the Ministry of the Environment, and a number of smaller grantors, such as the Finnish Film Foundation.
However, the statistics on business subsidies do not cover all subsidies, such as tax subsidies and business subsidies granted by municipalities if financing for them comes from the municipalities themselves.


Earlier, before the statistical year 2022, the statistics contained data on the direct business subsidies paid by the institutions financing such subsidies (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Business Finland, Finnvera, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry).
For 2020 to 2021, the statistics included special subsidies paid due to the corona pandemic: Business Finland's funding and loans in disruptive circumstances, disruptive funding by the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Finnvera's loans and guarantees due to the economic downturn, and the subsidies granted by the KEHA centres to food service enterprises. Included are also the State Treasury's business cost support, compensations for closures, event guarantee and support for uncovered fixed expenses.
 

The statistics have been published since the calendar year 2008 (statistical year 2006). Data are available from the statistical year 2004 onwards. Due to the change in the dataset, the data are not comparable from 2022 onwards with the years preceding it.

The statistics are published annually.

The statistics for 2022 are mainly based on a new data source, the register of business subsidies of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The register does not yet cover all subsidy programmes, such as those related to wage and start-up subsidies. Wage subsidies were added to the statistics by a separate data request. The register does not contain payment data on subsidies granted before 2020. There have also been shortcomings in the data related to the purpose of subsidy and its date of granting, but these have been corrected manually when the statistics were compiled.
The figures calculated by industry and enterprise size category contain inaccuracies because there is no background information on all enterprises included in the statistics.

Data concerning the statistical reference year are released at a time lag of around five months.

The statistics have been published on schedule.

There are no international guidelines, rules or recommendations for compiling statistics on business subsidies. Business subsidies are defined and measured differently in different countries. Therefore, the statistics published by different countries are not directly comparable.

New data were taken into use from the statistical reference year 2022 and at the same time, the definition of business subsidies was expanded to cover more subsidy programmes than before. Thus, the data are not comparable with past years.

Every effort has been made to prepare a comparable time series of the data contained in the statistics of previous years from 2004 onwards. The key data contained in the time series are always published in connection with the new statistics released annually. No international comparison data on the statistics are available. The merger of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Labour into the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment may slightly weaken the comparability of the statistics over time. Different types of subsidy (loans, guarantees and direct subsidies) are not directly comparable with each other. Changes in programme periods and changes in subsidy criteria have a slight impact on comparability (especially in time series). Project subsidies are included in the data supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry before the statistical year 2010, which weakens comparability between time series. The energy subsidies paid by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment have been included in direct subsidies since 2013. In 2020 to 2021, special subsidies were granted due to the corona pandemic.

Enterprises granted R&D subsidies by Business Finland are included in the statistics on research and development compiled by Statistics Finland. These subsidies are part of the data used in the statistics on business subsidies.

The business subsidy database covers the direct subsidies, loans and guarantees paid and granted during the statistical year. The annual totals of granted and paid subsidies differ from each other because granted subsidies may be paid over a period of several years or they may not necessarily be paid in full. The subsidies may also be recovered if the recipient fails to meet or is in breach of the terms and conditions imposed by the institution granting the subsidies or its own pledges.

The statistics are based on administrative data obtained from the register of business subsidies, the customer database of business services maintained by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Data on business subsidies have also been supplemented by means of other administrative registers.

The providers of the subsidies transfer the data to Statistics Finland as a line transfer.

Data suppliers submit the data to Statistics Finland each year.

Data on different subsidy providers are combined by enterprise. Data from the Business Register, such as the number of employees and turnover, are added to the data. The data for the Business Register are mostly from the Finnish Tax Administration registers and the inquiries carried out by Statistics Finland.

The accuracy of the incoming data is checked. The form of the variables is checked and unnecessary variables are removed. Every effort is made to ensure that the Business Identity Codes have been given in correct format. If necessary, the data are edited so that different types of subsidy can be specified. Any subsidies for public activities are removed and if the same subsidy appears more than once, unnecessary repetitions are removed. Logicality checks are made for subsidy events.

Statistics Finland

Economic Statistics

The compilation of statistics is guided by the Statistics Act. The Statistics Act contains provisions on collection of data, processing of data and the obligation to provide data. Besides the Statistics Act, the Data Protection Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are applied to processing of data when producing statistics. 

Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States.  

Further information: Statistical legislation 

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed in accordance with the requirements of the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Violation of data protection is punishable. 

Further information: Data protection | Statistics Finland (stat.fi) 

The data are reported in such a format that individual subsidy recipients cannot be identified. The data are processed only by persons that need business subsidy data in their work. The Business Identity Codes contained in the material supplied to researcher services are encrypted.

Statistics Finland publishes new statistical data on weekdays at 8 am in its web service. The release times are listed in advance in the release calendar published in the web service. The data become public after they have been updated in the web service.

The business subsidies data are available to researchers in the business subsidy database of Statistics Finland’s Research Services, and it can also be accessed remotely.

Statistical data are published as database tables in the StatFin database. The database is the primary publishing site of data, and new data are updated first there. When releasing statistical data, existing database tables can be updated with new data or completely new database tables can be published.   

The statistical data published in the StatFin database are usually accompanied by a release on the key data published in the web service. If the release contains data for several reference periods (such as monthly and annual data), a review summarising the data is published in the web service. Database tables updated at the time of publication are listed both in the release and in the review. In some cases, statistical data can also be published as database releases in the StatFin database. No releases or reviews are published in connection with these database releases.

The releases and database tables are published in Finnish, Swedish and English. The language versions of releases may contain less information than the Finnish version.  

Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service. 

Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.

The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.

Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.

Lisäksi suhdannetilastoihin tarvittaessa tämä lisäys:

Seasonally adjusted data in statistics on economic trends become revised because of the calculation method used. Additional information on a new time series observation is exploited in model-based calculation methods and this is reflected as changes in previous releases. Revisions of the latest figures to be seasonally adjusted are elaborated on in the releases and quality reports of statistics.

A summary table of the revisions that have taken place is also published in connection with key statistics on economic trends and some annual statistics. The table shows how the data for the statistical reference periods have changed between the first and the most recent statistical release.

The statistics are in accordance with the quality criteria of the Official Statistics of Finland. No separate quality assessments are carried out.

Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The frameworks complement each other. The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice. 

Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi) 

Data are released to all users at the same time. Statistical data may only be handled at Statistics Finland and information on them may be given before release only by persons involved in the production of the statistics concerned or who need the data of the statistics concerned in their own work before the data are published.

Unless otherwise separately stated in connection with the product, data or service concerned, Statistics Finland is the producer of the data and the owner of the copyright. The terms of use for statistical data.