Finnish PM Blames Apple For S&P Credit Rating Downgrade

Rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded on Monday Finland's credit rating to AA+ from AAA over concerns that the pace of its economic growth is slower. The next day, Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb blamed American tech giant Apple for the economic woes of the nation.

In downgrading Finland's credit rating, S&P noted that it has not gone back to its 2008 level because of weaker exports and the poor performance of its phone and paper industries.

S&P explained, quoted by Marketbusinessnews.com, the "downgrade reflects our view of the risk that the Finnish economy could experience protracted stagnation because of its aging population and shrinking workforce, weakening external demand, loss of global market share ... and relatively rigid labour market."

Mr Stubb, in an interview with CNBC, did not mince words in saying "The iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the paper industry, but we'll make a comeback."

It was not the first time he laid the blame on the Cupertino-based tech giant whose smartphones helped caused Finnish firm Nokia, once the king of the mobile phone industry, to lose its dominant market position. In July, Mr Stubb complained that "Steve Jobs took our jobs."

However, the PM pointed out that developments in the forest industry is helping the country's forest and paper industry recover, while the new Nokia Networks is rebuilding the brand.

Techcrunch stressed that Nokia's market share was gobbled up more by South Korean tech giant Samsung, which has overtaken Apple as the dominant smartphone maker in the world.

The Web site also noted that the Finnish paper industry started three decades ago.

While Finland's retained its AAA rating with two other major rating agencies, Fitch and Moody's, the S&P downgrade could hike Finland's borrowing cost by $25 million to $38 million.

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