ABSTRACT
After the 1939–44 wars Finland was faced with the problem of resettling about 11 percent of her population coming from the territory lost in the war. Finland enjoys the highest amount of forests per capita in Europe. The contribution of agriculture and forestry to gross domestic product (GDP) was about a quarter, but their share in the labour force was close to 50 percent. In gross GDP per capita terms Finland had even been above the average European levels already before the war, and the pre-war output level of 1938 was reached in 1946. Since that time the share of primary production has rapidly declined and particularly the share of service industries has increased. Particular difficulties were created by the fact that three quarters of the war reparations – which were to a large extent reparations out of current production – consisted of machinery and equipment, vessels and cables and only one quarter consisted of traditional forest industry products.
