On Thursday 4 October, Finland submitted its draft budgetary plan for 2019 to the European Commission.

Finland’s construction growth rate will slow considerably in 2019, particularly as a result of a decrease in housing construction, according to a report published on 27 September 2018 by the RAKSU working group on business cycles in the construction sector. The full-year growth rate forecast for 2018 was revised upwards. The RAKSU group expects construction output as a whole to be up by 3–4% this year and the output level in 2019 to remain close to this year’s figure. The forecast for construction growth in 2019 is in the range 1% to –1%.

The Ministry of Finance launched a preliminary study on the Aurora national artificial intelligence programme on 17 September 2018. The aim of Aurora is to accelerate the transitioning of public administration into the age of artificial intelligence in a secure, ethical manner. The idea behind Aurora is to make it possible for citizens to access the wide range of services available from service providers into seamless, smoothly functioning entities when dealing with various life events.

A report by researchers of the University of Eastern Finland studies the register of lobbyists as a form of regulating lobbying activities, as well as practices relating to such registers in the EU, Ireland, Great Britain, Austria and the United States. The purpose of a register of lobbyist is to collect and publish information on who does lobbying and who is the target, what are the matters concerned, how lobbying has been practised, and how it is funded. The registers often involve the code of conduct.

The working group assessing development needs in government debt management in Finland proposes that debt management and the management of government transactions be transferred to a separate debt office.