Finnish Euro Doubts Hide Business Plea to Commit to Currency

As a growing number of Finnish voters say they regret joining the euro 13 years ago, business leaders in the Nordic country warn that exiting the currency bloc would devastate Finland’s economy.

“Before the euro, we had to use the markka, the ruble and the dollar,” said Veli Vento, the manager of Well Finland Oy, a food company based northeast of Helsinki that sells to the Russian market. “We constantly bumped into unfavorable exchange rates, whether we were buying or selling. Whenever we tried to speculate on the rates, we’d always take a loss.”