Consumption and Prices of Alcohol until 2004

Abstract

If travellers' duty-free import allowance within the internal market is increased in the near future, the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Finland is set to increase – along with alcohol-related problems. This is true regardless of whether excise duties on alcoholic beverages are retained at their current level or whether they are lowered in response to the growth of duty-free imports. However, any decisions taken in Finland on excise duties will certainly influence the rate at which alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems will increase; the extent to which people will buy their drink at home or import it; as well as state incomes from excise duties on alcoholic beverages and the business environment of alcohol-related industries. This article discusses the results of a project whose explicit aim was to weigh the health and social consequences of lowered excise duties on alcoholic beverages and lower prices, the impacts of such moves on the state and the public economy, and the impacts on alcohol-related industries.