Income disparities growing faster in Finland than in any other
OECD country Favourable tax breaks on capital income seen as
primary explanatory variable According to a recent survey
conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the gap between rich and poor has widened
more in Finland than in any other wealthy industrialized country
over the past decade. The survey indicates that he income
disparities grew in Finland particularly fast in the period from
1995 to 2005. The only other country with almost the same pace
was Canada. Statistics over the past two decades show that the
growth in income disparities was highest in New Zealand, with
Finland coming in second. However, New Zealand’s income gap
widened only in the period from 1985 to 1995, while the past
decade no longer saw any significant growth in the country’s
Gini-coefficient figures, the standard unit of measurement in
this context. In spite of the rapid growth rate, Finland is
still a country with low inequality of i