On Wednesday, 6th August, Minister of Finance Riikka Purra published her proposal for next year's state budget. Looking at the proposal for a while only deepens the astonishment: why are we cutting growth measures? In particular, cutting the university index and shifting the objectives of RDI funding to the distant future are measures that will eat up precisely the growth stimuli that this government has advertised.

Even zero growth would be an achievement for the Finnish economy this year. The numbers laid on the table by financial experts at TEK's Council Arena were so bleak that the entire audience listened to them in complete silence.