Helsinki, Sep 20 : Accelerating inflation is slowing economic growth in Finland, reducing the growth of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to 0.5 per cent next year, according to the Finance Ministry's Economic Survey. This year's GDP growth is projected at 1.7 per cent and the forecast for 2024 is 1.4 per cent, reports Xinhua news agency. At a press conference, Mikko Spolander, director general at the ministry, described the forecast as "cautious" and stressed that the ministry's forecast does not predict a crisis or a collapse. "The imbalance in public finances threatens to deepen. We could also face surprises, either one at a time or several at once, and we need to be prepared for that," Spolander said. Also on Monday, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) predicted that GDP growth this year would remain at 2 per cent before slowing to zero in 2023. /IANS