Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Saturday 6.9.2025

Savings in the state budget

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Savings in the state budget

The topic of the news week this time is savings in the state budget.

The government had an important budget meeting this week.

The government decided on savings of several billion euros. The savings will be realized during 2026 and 2027.

The government’s goal is to reduce government debt and improve the situation of the Finnish economy.

We will now talk about the savings that the government decided on.

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Construction subsidies for rental housing will be cut. Photo: Mikko Savolainen / Yle

Construction of rental apartments

The biggest cut will be in affordable housing production.

The state will reduce support for the construction and renovation of rental housing by almost 370 million euros.

This can make it difficult to obtain housing, especially for low-income people and, for example, immigrants.

Subsidies for companies will be cut by more than 140 million euros.

Innovation subsidies for companies, i.e. subsidies for new ideas and subsidies for energy projects, will also be cut.

Approximately 95 million euros will be cut from research and development funding.

Integration services

Development cooperation will be cut by 20 million euros. However, the cut will not affect the work of non-governmental organizations.

30 million euros will be cut from immigrant integration services. This will be done by reducing the obligations of municipalities regarding integration.

Cuts will also be made to Kela reimbursements for private doctor visits, funding for agencies, and training for social and healthcare staff.

Savings are also made on pharmaceutical reimbursements.

The budget also includes money from the State Pension Fund and Metsähallitus.

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Integration training lesson at Savonlinna Folk High School. Municipalities will be relieved of their obligation to organize integration training. Photo: Sami Ikonen / Yle

Alcohol and tobacco tax

The government will not increase taxes in general, but harmful taxes will be increased.

For example, taxes on alcohol, tobacco and nicotine products will be increased.

The tax reduction for high-income pensioners will be smaller than the government previously said.

The government says that new savings will not be allocated to social security, benefits for families with children, pensions, or social and health services.

There will also be no savings in agricultural food production and nature conservation.

Repetition

The topic of the news week was savings in the state budget.

The cuts will amount to around a billion euros. The cuts will have the biggest impact next year, and they will continue into the following year.

Savings are made especially from housing subsidies, company subsidies and, for example, research.

New savings will not be allocated to families with children, pensions, or basic services.

This was a news week in plain Finnish. See you again, let’s hear from you!