Overall alcohol consumption dropping in Finland
Overall alcohol consumption is dropping in Finland…
The sharp rise in the consumption of alcohol which followed the drop in alcohol taxation in 2004 appears to have levelled off in the early part of this year. If the trend continues, overall consumption could actually decrease during the latter part of 2006.
Thanks to the lower alcohol taxes in Finland, Finns no longer travel to Estonia to bring back mountains of booze…
The amount of strong spirits brought back from abroad - especially Estonia - has declined by as much as one third compared with the previous year, and personal imports of beer have also declined significantly. Also, an increasing number of Finns come back from trips abroad without a single bottle of cheap liquor.
The tiny 2.5% increase in domestic consumption is due to the foreigners (Swedes and Norwegians) aimporting more alcohol from Finland and Finns are importing less from abroad - and now consumption is getting back to normal. Remember this when the welfare statists try to raise alcohol taxes again.
The decline is so substantial that it could signify an overall reduction in total alcohol consumption for this year.
1 comment
“no comments yet”.
What’s that Phil?
This is btw no news to me. I knew this would happen. And if consumption is going up again later on, it will be because of overall increase of wealth. Simple. But your friends at Kokoomus already made it clear that they want the taxes up again to the pre-2004 level. Wonderful.. They must be blind or this is a cunning plan to pay for the tax breaks they have in mind for the more wealthy (they do not care about a bottle of wine costing twice what it should be).
Comment by majava — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 2:49 pm
>Österberg notes that per capita alcohol consumption cannot increase >indefinitely: a saturation-point exists somewhere.
> “In the West it is somewhere between 12 and 13 litres; in Russia >it is higher.”
Give me a fucking break! What the heck is Russia doing here? HS starts to be really annoying with its anti-russian attitudes.
Comment by Alex — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 2:52 pm
Thanks to the lower alcohol taxes in Finland, Finns no longer travel to Estonia to bring back mountains of booze
The legal ability to bring back any meaningful amount of cheap booze from Estonia only came about at the same time as the taxes were lowed (after all Estonia’s entry to EU was one of the main arguments for the tax cut), so I don’t think this fall off in travelling to Estonia is related to the tax cut. Perhaps it’s more to do with the prices rising in Estonia as her economy improves since EU membership.
Comment by JG — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 2:59 pm
HS starts to be really annoying with its anti-russian attitudes.
I agree.
Like this one:
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Government+to+work+with+Russians+for+solution+of+border+congestion/1135221653892
Comment by FinnFreak — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 3:03 pm
FinnFreak,
no, no, this is anti-Vanhanen
>Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen says that he will send a letter to Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov drawing attention to the transport problems.
That’s a problem solver!
Comment by Alex — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
Despite that article in HS… Altia is still prepared for people to continue to “tank up”…
Altia expands its Koskenkorva Plant in order to begin production of fuel ethanol
http://www.altiacorporation.com/altia/altiacorp.nsf/sivut/AltiaNews?OpenDocument&cid=Content6EF34-2
Comment by FinnFreak — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 3:27 pm
1 comment
“no comments yetâ€Â.
What’s that Phil?
Yeah, I saw that too, weird.
Comment by Phil — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 4:06 pm
But your friends at Kokoomus already made it clear that they want the taxes up again to the pre-2004 level. Wonderful..
Did they? Great. Well, they’re no friends of mine. Since Finland has no major liberal party, alot of liberals are found in Kokoomus, and so are alot of conservatives. I guess they have to balance the two and maybe the conservatives are wanting the higher taxes on booze? Dunno.
Comment by Phil — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 4:08 pm
.Give me a fucking break! What the heck is Russia doing here?
Yeah, no kidding, that was totally out of the blue, I have no idea how Russia relates to the story.
Comment by Phil — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 4:09 pm
I know they are not your friends
But it’s hard if you’re American, even when you’re Dutch, to find a political party with a program that fits your ideas and ideology. Kokoomus is so much more a center party, could even be called socialist party compared to what I’m used to in Holland. Only now, now they’re an opposition party, you can hear some stronger values. Put them in a government coalition and they will be happily making compromises with the socialists…
Comment by majava — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 4:44 pm
Maybe as Russia is a neighbouring country, with similar climate and a well-developed vodka drinking culture?, similar to Finland vs. say France which has a wine-drinking culture.
Comment by Hank W. — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 4:44 pm
And regarding wine vs. vodka drinking culture, to make comparable statistics you count pure alcohol per total capita, so its 100% alcohol drunk by the whole population from babies to pensioners. Of course if it says the 13 liters of alcohol doesn’t mean someone’s baby is swigging 26 bottles of vodka… it means the babys daddy might be drinking 52…
Comment by Hank W. — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 4:56 pm
“Give me a fucking break! What the heck is Russia doing here? HS starts to be really annoying with its anti-russian attitudes.”
Do I remember right, Alex, you were from Russia? It’s your own fault. If your people had not scrapped Soviet Union, HS would be writing very positive articles now, instead of being the Brussels Pravda
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 6:18 pm
While the news that the Great Estonian Vodka Rally is slowing down is welcome, the article doesn’t claim that alcohol consumption is dropping. It notes that growth has levelled off, and that consumption _could_ decrease in the future.
Comment by a lamb with no guiding light — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 9:08 pm
Remember also that not all measured consumption is actually drunk at all. If you buy a bottle of wine and only drink half of it, the statistics show that you drank a bottle of wine. If a pub has to put a bottle of beer away, it will be counted in the statistics. If you use alcohol as a food product, again it is counted as consumption.
Another possibly important factor driving up the ‘consumption’ of alcohol after the tax breaks is simply that people were buying to have more alcohol in their homes in case of need. I know I did. Which would explain a sudden spike in alcohol ‘consumption’ after tax breaks and why it goes down pretty fast (though would stay on higher level than before tax breaks indefinitely).
But how do you measure actual consumption? I’m not surprised if it has risen, but how do you reliably measure it?
ps. 13 liters of pure alcohol turns into 2.5 dl of pure alcohol per week, which means either 5 liters of beer, 2 liters of wine or 6.25dl of vodka.
Comment by Mikko — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 10:37 pm
Did they? Great. Well, they’re no friends of mine. Since Finland has no major liberal party, alot of liberals are found in Kokoomus, and so are alot of conservatives. I guess they have to balance the two and maybe the conservatives are wanting the higher taxes on booze? Dunno.
Yeah, as a Kokoomus voter that was a disappointment to me too. But the reason Kokoomus wants to raise the tax seems to be the potential tax revenue, not increased alcohol consumption. They showed they had some balls by proposing to completely remove the inheritance tax AND to lower other taxes as well. Then they heard the “Will somebody think of the tax revenue!?” cries and decided that the alcohol tax can be raised. Bad move I say.
Comment by Nirva — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 11:05 pm
Another possibly important factor driving up the ‘consumption’ of alcohol after the tax breaks is simply that people were buying to have more alcohol in their homes in case of need.
Yeah that’s it; all our booze is stashed in our underground bomb shelters. We just pass-out on sidewalks and urinate in our pants for the heck of it.
But how do you measure actual consumption?
Simple: Count all the drunks
Comment by Kristian (in Espoo) — Wed, Sep 20th, 2006 @ 11:58 pm
But how do you measure actual consumption?
Ok, here’s a more reliable method than simply counting them all:
Go around town and snatch-up drunks at random. Then, measure their respective alcohol levels. With the right sample size, we could get within, say, 2-standard deviations from the actual value of Finland’s population.
Close enough for government work, right?
Comment by Kristian (in Espoo) — Thu, Sep 21st, 2006 @ 12:48 am
Comment by Mikko — Thu, Sep 21st, 2006 @ 8:20 am
Oh man, come on fellow finlanders, let’s keep up the drinking.
Comment by Svennen — Thu, Sep 28th, 2006 @ 3:12 pm
When I first moved to Finland I had a hard time understanding the level of alcohol everybody drinks here. Then I tried doing errands, going shopping or doing anything entertaining after 5pm or on a Sunday and thats when I got it. The Finns have nothing to do when they are not working. Everything is closed but the bars are open.
Comment by Ana — Tue, Oct 10th, 2006 @ 2:53 pm