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HELSINKI (AFP) - Consumer confidence in Finland is at a 16-year high after a record rise in the last 12 months, according to official figures released Monday.

The monthly consumer confidence barometer hit 23 in September, Statistics Finland said in a statment, compared to 21.9 in August 2010 and 11.7 in September last year, representing the biggest year-on-year rise on record.

"Confidence in Finland's economy has last been this strong in 1994," the organisation said.

Fifty-six percent of those polled also believed that Finland's economy would improve in the next 12 months, while only eight percent felt it would deteriorate.

Meanwhile, Finnish industry's confidence in the economy grew slightly from August, but is still below normal growth levels, according to statistics released by the Confederation of Finnish Industries.

"The number of orders is still worse than normal," confederation economist Penna Urrila said in a statement.

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