HELSINKI - Finland's finance ministry on Tuesday cut its economic outlook for 2023 and said the country risks a recession.

The ministry now predicts gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 1.9% in 2022 and contract by 0.2% next year when in September it had expected growth of 1.7% in this year and 0.5% in 2023.

"It is difficult to see a path on which growth does not slow in Finland. The risk of a recession is clear," said the ministry's director general Mikko Spolander in a statement.

The ministry estimated consumer price inflation of 4% in 2023, up from a previous forecast of 3.2%.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Stine Jacobsen)