Finnish high tech exports fall 45 pct in 2009: customs

Finnish high technology exports shrunk 45 percent last year to levels last seen in 1997 as mobile phone sales plummeted, official statistics showed Monday.

"A total of 15 million mobile phones were exported from Finland last year, while a year earlier more than 32 million of them were exported," the Finnish Customs Board said in a statement.

The value of all high technology products exported in 2009 was 6.3 billion euros (8.5 billion dollars), accounting for 14 percent of total exports.

The figure compares with 11.4 billion euros of high tech exports in 2008, and 11.5 billion euros at the height of the IT boom in 2000, when high technology products accounted for 23.3 percent of Finland's exports.

Germany, Russia and Britain were the most important export markets for Finnish high technology products, according to customs, while China was the key source of high tech imports to Finland.