Bank of Finland: The team from the Helsingin Suomalainen yhteiskoulu won the Finnish finals for the Generation €uro Students’ Award

HELSINKI, 13-4-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — The team from the Helsingin Suomalainen yhteiskoulu won the Finnish finals for the Generation €uro Students’ Award. In the very tight competition, the teams from Tampereen lyseon lukio and Ålands lyceum tied for second place. The finals took place at the Bank of Finland Museum on 9 April 2015. The award-winning team was selected by a jury composed of Bank of Finland experts and chaired by Seppo Honkapohja, Member of the Board of the Bank of Finland.

The winning team and its teacher have been awarded a trip to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. In Frankfurt, the team will also meet the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi. The two other teams that qualified for the finals were awarded book gift vouchers. Those participating in the award-winning team were Juho Flinck, Otso Hao, Ali Salloum and Pirkka Sippola. The team was tutored by its teacher member Harri Korpisaari.

“The competition for the Generation €uro Students’ Award resembles in many ways the day-to-day work of a central bank economist, as it involves comprehensive monitoring and analysis of economic and monetary developments, challenging one’s own views and those of colleagues, and presenting views to others”, said Bank of Finland Governor Erkki Liikanen as he opened the finals.

The Generation €uro Students’ Award is a team competition about monetary policy, open to students in the 16–19 age group and organised in 11 euro area countries. In the competitions, arranged across Europe, four-strong teams are tasked with submitting a proposal for an interest-rate decision of the Governing Council of the ECB and other possible monetary policy actions. The Bank of Finland organised the competition in Finland.

The Generation €uro Students’ Award constitutes part of the Bank of Finland’s activities, aimed at promoting young people’s economic competence. The Generation €uro Students’ Award provides young people with an opportunity for learning to identify the impact of monetary policy on the euro area economy and central banking in general.

The first round of the competition consisted of a quiz organised via the Internet, in which 24 teams participated. The second round took the form of essay writing. The three best teams qualified for the finals.

For further information, please contact:
Richard Brander, Senior Communications Officer, tel. +358 10 831 2206.