Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2016 | Page 2

FINLAND FAST FACTS 64° 00' N 26° 00' E Highest possible status (AAA) with the global credit rating agencies Fitch Ratings and Moody’s and AA+ by Standard & Poor’s. Newsweek Magazine has ranked Finland as the world’s best country on the basis of criteria emphasising the environment, education and quality of life. The largest sector of the Finnish economy is services at 65 %, followed by manufacturing and refining at 31 %. Finnish startup spirit is personified by super tech-event Slush which again brought together 15,000 attendees (including 1,700 startups) in November 2015. Helsinki was declared the number one Smart City in the world (Fast Company). Corporation tax was lowered to 20% at the beginning of 2014 (from 24,5%). Espoo-based Aalto University is an "Innovation University" through-and-through. Combining business, design and hi-tech, Aalto was ranked among the five rising stars of the international academic community by MIT. Helsinki placed second (after London) in the Financial Times’ FDI Intelligence European Cities of the Future 2014/2015 ranking which measures the ability of areas and cities to attract foreign direct investments (FDI). Finland has the highest Research & Development intensity of all 28 European Union member states (Eurostat). Tandem Graphics 2016 Labour costs are lower in Finland compared to the other Nordic countries. Helsinki was ranked second in World Economic Forum's 2013 Human Capital Index. Finland has the best availability of scientists and engineers in the world (WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015). Finnish game series Angry Birds has been downloaded more than three billion times, making it the most downloaded freemium game series of all time.