Finns are not known for their loquacity, but even by their reserved standards last week's statement fromPerlos, a no-frills manu-facturer of covers for mobile phones, was blunt. "There are no possibilities to continue production operations in Finland," it declar-ed, and with that 1,123 people were out of work.

The sackings ended more than 50 years of production in Finland but should have come as no surprise to anyone who had noted recent announcements from Perlos that it had been adding manufacturing capacity in low-cost countries - China, Hungary, Brazil and Mexico.