Helsinki, Feb 22 - Finns drank less alcohol on average last year for the first time in a decade, as the novelty of Baltic "booze-cruises" to buy cheaper liquor abroad faded, a health official said on Thursday.
The dip came after several years of soaring consumption in Finland, where alcohol is the leading cause of death among men and the second-biggest killer of women.
The agency overseeing Finland's alcohol laws, STTV, said Finns consumed 10.3 litres (2.266 Imp gallons) of pure alcohol on average in 2006, down from 10.5 litres the previous year.
"When Estonia became an EU member in 2004 lots of Finns went on cruises to buy alcohol, but now they do not do it as much any more," STTV's Lennart Wahlfors told Reuters.
But he said the fall in consumption was unlikely to become a trend and latest figures showed domestic sales would more than make up for lower tourist imports from across the Baltic Sea.
Campaigners and health officers blame the rise in alcohol use in recent years on day-trips to Estonia, where drink costs less, and a tax cut intended to persuade Finns to buy liquor at home rather than take the ferry to Tallinn, just two hours away.
Despite last year's dip, Finns still consume 11 percent more alcohol than before the tax cut and Estonia joined the European Union.
Sales figures released on Thursday by Alko, Finland's state- owned alcohol retail monopoly, showed growing sales of spirits and particularly of wine. Overall Alko sold 2.6 percent more in pure alcohol terms in 2006 than the previous year.
Wahlfors said that rather than marking a shift down a gear from strong drink, wine had replaced some beer sales, and was in addition to heavy intake of strong liquor.
"Finnish people have started to drink on weekdays too, not just the weekend. But still, weekend drinking is heavy," he said.
The main political parties running in Finland's general elections next month have all said they favour a rise in taxes on alcohol and Wahlfors said he would favour an increase of about 5 percent at least in the retail price.
"Domestic sales will increase unless the government increases taxes again," Wahlfors said, though adding that even if a new government were to do that after the March elections, it would have little effect on consumption this year.
Some campaigners say a tax increase would help in reducing consumption, but argue that too high an increase will just get more people to take the ferry again, or brew their own.