-Volume 9, No.7 December 2005 Estonian Economy

ESTONIAN ECONOMIC POLICY ...... 1 STATE BUDGET ...... 4 MAJOR ECONOMIC INDICATORS ...... 2 DEVELOPMENT BY SECTORS ...... 4 GDP ...... 3 BANKING...... 4 PRICES...... 3 TRANSPORT...... 5 LABOUR MARKET ...... 3 ENERGY...... 5 FISCAL POLICY...... 4

• The European Commission will examine for conformity with the requirements for the adoption of the currency in the second half of 2006, not in the first half-year as previously believed. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said the evaluation period was chosen in such a way not in order to give Estonia extra time to bring its economy into line with the Maastrich criteria but because the rules actually say that a country's readiness for adoption of the common currency can be evaluated only after the country has been a member of the ERM2 exchange rate mechanism during two years. Estonia joined ERM2 on June 28, 2004. Finance Minister Aivar Soerd said it is good that the Commission will evaluate Estonia's readiness for the euro in the second half of next year and not earlier. Estonia meets the other euro criteria, such as fiscal balance and the size of the government sector's debt. , Lithuania and Estonia have announced they wish to adopt the euro from Jan. 1, 2007. Under the inflation criteria, inflation in a country wishing to adopt the euro must not be higher than 1.5 percent above the average inflation rate posted by the three eurozone countries with the lowest inflation. The Bank of Estonia has said it expects Estonia's economy to grow at a rate of 6.8 percent and annual inflation to reach 3.4 percent in 2006. • The Estonian money market will remain stable even if the country cannot adopt the euro currency at the beginning of 2007 as planned, it appears from a forecast for 2006 presented to the parliamentary finance committee by the Bank of Estonia. Bank of Estonia Vice Governor Marten Ross, who spoke before MPs, said an adjournment of Estonia's switch to the euro would pose no major threat to the money markets, spokespeople for parliament said. Ross said the money market is expected to remain stable and no major changes are seen ahead. The Bank of Estonia sees Estonia's economic development as balanced, helped by a favorable external environment and rapid increase in productivity. The central bank expects Estonia's economy to grow at a rate of 6.8 percent next year. Inflation in 2006 is expected to run at an average rate of 3.4 percent. The main driving forces behind inflation are the higher oil prices and low interest rates, which have boosted borrowing and taken the prices of housing higher. Another source of pressure is wage rise, which is increasing domestic demand. Overall level of inflation, if oil prices and a few other factors are left aside, will be to the tune of 2.5 percent. • The Bank of Estonia and Mint of signed an agreement on the minting of Estonia's . The contract was inked by the governor of the central bank, Andres Lipstok, and managing director of the Finnish mint Raimo Makkonen. Mint of Finland was the winner of an international tender arranged by the Bank of Estonia, making the most advantageous offer. Actual minting won't start until the council of EU finance ministers makes the final decision about Estonia's qualifying for the euro zone starting from Jan. 1 the following year.

ESTONIAN ECONOMIC POLICY • In case Estonia continues to practise conservative budgetary politics, the country should not have any major problems meeting the Maastricht criteria in 2006, the Estonian government found. As a result Estonia will presumably be among the first new EU countries to adopt the euro, it appears from the updated Estonian convergence program 2005 the Estonian government endorsed. The oil price rise has had a bigger effect on Estonia than elsewhere in the EU as the share of fuels and energy is nearly twice as high in the consumer basket here than in the EU on the average; besides, there has been a hike in administratively regulated prices in the country. The program calls the effect of factors that speed up inflation as temporary and finds that they have not been accompanied by the so-called second-round effects. A slowdown in the hike of consumer

ESTONIAN ECONOMY is compiled from materials issued by Bank of Estonia, Statistical Office of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Finance and from Baltic News Services. Review is issued by the Press and Information Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs ISLANDI VÄLJAK 1,TALLINN, 15049 ESTONIA Tel: +372 631 7614 Fax: +372 631 7617 To subscribe please contact: [email protected], http://www.vm.ee

December 2005

prices is expected in 2006. The program serves as the basis for evaluating whether the Estonian economic and budgetary policy is suitable to meet the Maastricht convergence criteria. To adopt the euro Estonia must meet the convergence criteria laid down in the Maastricht agreement. Estonia has announced its desire to adopt the euro as of January 1, 2007. • The Estonian parliamentary committee for control over the state budget has found that the government failed to gain full awareness of the problem of excessive stocks of commodities and its measures to prevent such stocks from emerging were not effective enough. Estonia's state institutions were unable to become aware of the problem of excessive food stocks during several years and figure out their responses, the committee finds in its conclusions after discussing the issue of the EU sugar penalty. The government also failed at the end of 2003 and in early 2004 to take sufficient measures to prevent excessive stocks from being accumulated. Stocks of sugar at the moment of Estonia's accession to the EU that have been deemed as excessive are seen to bring an EU penalty on Estonia in the amount of over 900 million kroons. The government has contested the size of the excessive stocks calculated by the Commission. • The Estonian Kredex has extended its cooperation agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF), as a result of which the limit of loans with EIF's co-guarantee has gone up 30 percent from 347 million to 501 million kroons (EUR 32 mln). Cooperation with EIF allows Kredex to offer to companies bigger guarantees than usual, of up to 14 million kroons, and at lower prices, Kredex said. Besides, EIF will share risks taken by Kredex in guaranteeing investment loans to the tune of 50 percent of the sum of the guarantee. Since the cooperation started in 2004, a total of 195 million kroons of combined Kredex and EIF business loan guarantees have been issued to 147 companies. The guarantees have made it possible to make investments to the tune of 600 million kroons, for which 403 million kroons of loans have been taken from banks. The Kredex business loan guarantees are intended for small and medium-sized companies that are only launching their operations or lack sufficient guarantees for taking bank loans. The Kredex guarantees ensure to the bank up to 75 percent of a company's investment or circulation loan. • Supervisory council of the state stabilization fund decided to make the fund's conservative investment policy more flexible by extending the investments' time horizon. Finance Minister Aivar Soerd told that the supervisory council made the changes in the administration of the stabilization fund for a longer period and no other changes were to be expected in the near future. The change in the investment rules was dictated by the circumstance that the investment terms had not been changed in the past three years and that the 2.3 percent yield on the investment on resources of the reserve was due to a conservative investment policy and the yeild could be higher. • Estonia will soon no longer be able to benefit from an economic model based on competitive advantages created by relatively cheap labor, the Enterprise Estonia (EAS) foundation finds, leader of EAS Alar Kolk said during a presentation of a yearbook on Estonia's competitive status. Now time has come for Estonia to put more and more emphasis on products with greater added-value, on knowledge based and more expensive export products, Kolk said. Estonian labor costs can no longer compete with labor costs in Asian countries. The main objective for EAS is to help Estonian companies become international so that they could be successful on the world market. • The president of the Bank of Estonia, Andres Lipstok, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Vahur Kraft, has again warned Estonians against excessive borrowing inspired by strong economic growth. In the sphere of mortgage loans banks are engaged in stiff competition aimed at conquering the market with more and more aggressive offers, Lipstok says in the Eesti Paevaleht daily. As a result, loan conditions regarding interest rates, terms and self-financing have become equal with or even more advantageous than elsewhere in the EU. Estonia's economic growth in the third quarter was 10.8 percent.

MAJOR ECONOMIC INDICATORS • Analysts at Estonia's largest commercial banks and the Finance Ministry forecast the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005 to exceed the 2004 figure by more than nine percent, surpassing the growth rate of 8 percent held out by the Bank of Estonia earlier. Maris Lauri, analyst with Hansabank, told she saw Estonia posting an annual GDP growth rate of over 9 percent this year. "It is possible that growth will slow down a bit in the fourth quarter, but it cannot be ruled out either that economic growth will turn out stronger. There are no particular signs indicating that growth has slowed down," Lauri told. Anne Karik- Uustalu, of Sampo Bank, also said the whole-year economic growth rate was expected to be higher than 9 percent. The Finance Ministry said that in the fourth quarter domestic demand continued to grow rapidly and external demand is seen to be increasing too. The ministry estimates the annual growth rate to be more than nine percent. The increase in investments should slow down somewhat in the near term because of the high reference base from last year, it said. Estonia's economy grew 10.6 percent in the third quarter of 2005 compared with the same period a year ago, mostly as a result of increased domestic demand, the Statistical

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Office said. The annual economic growth rate was seven percent in the first quarter and 9.9 percent in the second quarter of this year. • The notable acceleration of Estonia's economic growth in the third quarter of this year was mostly powered by increasing domestic demand, the Finance Ministry says. The growth of the Estonian economy in Q3 increased to 10.8 percent compared with the same period a year ago. The growth of domestic demand is evidenced primarily by the continued rise in retail and car sales, a further increase in activity on the real estate market and the gathering momentum of construction, the ministry finds. The significant increase in the growth of private consumption can partly be explained also by last year's low comparison base when consumption growth slowed down to 2 percent in the third quarter, the ministry noted. High consumption was further supported by continued growth in net incomes resulting from a drop in joblessness,increase in the number of workers, real growth in net wages and decrease in the tax burden. Fast growth is supported as before by low loan and deposit interest rates and favorable loan and leasing conditions. Investment activity remained high in Q3 supported by vigorous construction. In view of a record mortgage loan turnover, the Finance Ministry says households' share in investment can be expected to grow. Fast growth of capital investments by the government sector will also continue which in turn will power continued fast investment growth. By the Bank of Estonia's preliminary estimate, export growth slowed down slightly to 20.7 percent in current prices. Moderate growth continued in the transit sector while in the tourism sector the number of stays by foreign visitors dropped significantly. The growth in the import of goods and services picked up speed, rising to 21.2 percent which outstrips the growth in export. • Analysts say the three billion kroon current account deficit run by Estonia in the third quarter of this year was in line with expectations. Maris Lauri, of Hansabank, said the figure released as a rapidestimate by the Central Bank was not surprising. "Perhaps the import of services was bigger than expected, but then the outflow of revenues was smaller too.The fears as regards weaknesses in transfers were again confirmed -- the absorption of EU funds into the country's economy was extremely weak in the third quarter," she said. "The trends that we saw earlier will continue - export of goods will grow faster than import, yet things will remain the other way round in services, and in the end the surplus will decline. In the year's count I would expect a (current account) deficit to the tune of ten percent of GDP, provided that the EU will make substantial transfers still in the course of this year," the analyst said.

GDP • Estonia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 10.6 percent in the third quarter of 2005 against the same period a year ago, the Statistical Office said. The Statistical Office earlier had estimated Q3 economic growth to reach 10.8 percent. According to preliminary calculations by the Statistical Office, Estonia's third-quarter GDP was 43.2 billion kroons (EUR 2.76 b) at current prices and 34.0 billion kroons at constant 2000 prices. The growth of GDP was influenced by domestic demand, which increased 10.8 percent. The growth of GDP was mainly influenced by manufacturing, real estate, renting, business activities, and wholesale and retail. The total share of these activities was 48.7 percent of the value added total. In the opinion of the Statistical Office Estonia's economic growth accelerated also because of a faster growth in exports than in imports. While domestic demand was a factor supporting growth, its share in GDP declined in comparison with 2004 • According to Eurostat the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Estonia was 51 percent of the GDP per capita in the EU (EU) in 2004. Eurostat said the GDP per capita in Estonia increased by three percentage points in 2004 against 2003. In Lithuania the figure increased also by three percentage points and in Latvia by two percentage points. The GDP in Latvia was the lowest in the EU last year, making up 43 percent of the EU average. In Lithuania the same figure was 48 percent and in Poland 49 percent. In Finland the gross domestic product per capita was 113 percent of that for the whole bloc in 2004. PRICES • Estonia's consumer price index for November declined 0.2 percent compared with October, while year on year the index was 3.9 percent higher, the Statistical Office said. In November the consumer price index was mainly influenced by a decline in the prices of motor fuel and by an increase in the prices of vegetables, flour products and fruit. Administered prices rose 7.1 percent and non-administered prices 2.8 percent year on year. In comparison with October the prices of foodstuffs climbed 1.5 percent and services 0.1 percent. The prices of manufactured goods declined 1.8 percent month on month. Expenses for transport climbed the most -- 3.9 percent. A comparison with November 2004 shows the steepest decline as having occurred in the prices of communicationservices, which dropped four percent. Housing expenses have climbed 7.4 percent and transport expenses 7.1 percent in the course of the 12 months. LABOUR MARKET

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• The Estonian government agreed a proposal by the supervisory council of the Unemployment Insurance Fund to reduce the rate of contributions by employees from 1 percent to 0.6 percent and by employers from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of pay. The government supports cutting the unemployment insurance contribution rates from next year, spokespeople said. Unemployment insurance contributions next year are projected at 483.6 million kroons (EUR 30.9 mln) with the new rates. The rates ensure sufficient inflow to pay compensations and discharge the duties of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. • The Estonian government set the minumum hourly wages at 17.8 kroons (EUR 1.14) and the monthly wages for full-time work at 3,000 kroons (EUR 161.69). The agreement on the minumum wages was signed between the confederations of Estonian trade unions and of employers. The present minumum monthly wages are 2,690 kroons (EUR 171.88). FISCAL POLICY STATE BUDGET • The parliament adopted a 61.4 billion kroon (EUR 3.92 b) state budget for Estonia for 2006. The bill setting out the state budget to the sum of 61,417,894,543 kroons for 2006 is by 6.2 billion kroons or 11.2 percent bigger than state budget for 2005. It will cut the rate of income tax by a further one percentage point from 24 percent to 23 points and increase non-taxable income from the present 1,700 kroons to 2,000 kroons a month. External funds make up 6.8 billion kroons or 11 percent of the budget's 61.4 billion kroon volume. At 1.7 billion kroons, pension increases account for more than a quarter of the overall increase in the size of the budget. The budget also extends to 15 months the period during which the parent's benefit is paid. Tax income makes up 49 billion kroons of the revenues in the new budget, accounting for 80 percent of overall income. Tax income is expected to rise 10.8 percent in 2006 in comparison with the tax income projection for 2005. Income tax is expected to bring 6.02 billion kroons and social tax 20.07 billion kroons into the state coffersin 2006. The government's position is that Estonia should not have big problems meeting the Maastricht criteria if a conservative fiscal police is maintained.

______Further information is available: http://www.eestipank.info/pub/en/dokumendid/statistika/ ______

DEVELOPMENT BY SECTORS

BANKING • Estonians save and invest significantly less than people in countries of Central and Eastern Europe with a similar standard of living, a survey presented by Hansabank shows. Helo Meigas, chief of the investment management division at Hansabank, said at an investment fair that fixed-term deposits still are the main means of investment for Estonians. Beside fixed-term deposits, the other most important means of investment in Estonia are pension funds of the mandatory second pillar of the pension system, which have been joined by nearly half a million residents, or 80 percent of all occupied residents. At the same time last year, the respective ratio was 71 percent, Meigas said. Pension funds of the third pillar, offering voluntary funded pension, have been joined only by about 80,000 people or 14 percent of residents so far. Generally speaking, Estonians are moving increasingly from short-term to long-term investment and the share of financial instruments with a higher yield ratio is constantly rising. • Estonian banks had at the end of November a total of 1,180,984 Internet banking and 182,369 telephone service clients. • Harmo Vark, managing director of Sampo Pank, will after the end of the financial year 2005 assume a position with Sampo's Baltic Management putting him in charge of pan-Baltic projects and large customer relations. At the same time, Vark will become a member of the supervisory board of Sampo Pank and resign from the bank's management board, spokespeople said. Sampo Pankki Oy, which is part of the leading Finnish banking and insurance group Sampo, has a subsidiary bank in each of the three Baltic states. • Indrek Neivelt, former chairman of the management board of Hansabank, became chairman of the supervisory board of a St. Petersburg-based bank co-owned by Estonian businessman Hillar Teder, Eesti Paevaleht reported. The newspaper said Bank Sankt-Peterburg had a good relationship with regional governor Valentina Matviyenko, elected to the post with the backing of President Vladimir Putin. During the elections of governor Matviyenko's election headquarters were situated at the bank's head office. Bank Sankt-

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Peterburg is not one of Russia's biggest banks. With assets standing at 21.7 billion rubles and owner's equity of 2.2 billion rubles, the banks ranks respectively 42nd and 68th on the Russian banking market. • A moving office-banking bus of Hansapank in which the bank invested 1.8 million kroons (EUR 115,000) will start work. The bus is an alternative to bank offices in rural areas and it also allows to make transactions during open-air events, for instance. Hansapank begins the project with one bus. The banking bus allows to make all banking transactions. Cash transactins can in the bus be made only through ATMs TRANSPORT • The Estonian government decided at its Cabinet meeting that the state would demand from the private owner of Eesti Raudtee (Estonian Railway), Baltic Rail Services (BRS), a contractual penalty of 15 million kroons (EUR 958,000) for not meeting the privatization terms. The ministry said the government was unanimous in its decision. The ministry said that according to the report submitted by BRS the plan of investments into railway instrastucture has not been met. • AS Tallink Grupp signed a shipbuilding contract with Finland's Aker Finnyards OY under which a new cruise ferry, sister to the Galaxy that is currently under construction, will be delivered to the Estonian shipper by summer 2008. The contract for the new ship was signed using the rights deriving from an option agreement, Tallink told the stock exchange. The price of the new ferry is approximately 165 million , 20 percent of which will be paid during the period of construction and 80 percent when the ship is delivered. • A total of 16,040 small investors, more than one percent of the Estonian population, bought shares in Tallink in the initial public offering (IPO) of shares in the shipping line in December 2nd. Henrik Igasta, head of corporate finance at the Suprema investment bank, one of the co-organizers of the Tallink IPO, told that the IPO could be regarded as very successful. Internationally an IPO is regarded as ending with a good result if half a percent of the population takes part in it. In addition to a large number or private investors, Igasta said, practically all Estonian institutional investors subscribed to considerable amounts of the shares. The Tallink supervisory board set the price of a share in the initial public offering at 82.5 kroons (EUR 5.27). • Estonian Ambassador to Finland Priit Kolbre said issues connected with the Estonian Tallink shipping line have often received a biased, from time to time even hysterical, treatement in the Finnish press, the daily Helsingin Sanomat reported. At a seminar organized by the Tuglas Association in Kolbre sharply criticized articles of the Finnish press on the discharge of waste water from Tallink ships, the paper wrote. Kolbre underlined that Tallink's activity in the purification and treatment of waste water is in agreement with all laws and international agreements. ENERGY • At a Cabinet meeting the Estonian government endorsed the Estonian electrical economy development plan for the years 2005-2015. The development plan maps the current situation of the economy, underlines points reflected in Estonia's accession agreement to the EU and forecasts development of electricity consumption, the government press office reported. Guided by the need to renovate and build up most of Estonia's electricity generation capacities the need for their development until the year 2015 has been estimated at about 1-1.5 billion kroons (EUR 64-80 mln) a year. In 2015 the amount of energy generated from renewable sources will be 742-806 gigawatt-hours, bearing in mind the 8-percent target. According to the development plan the proportion of renewable energy will be 5.1 percent of domestic gross consumption in 2010 and at least 8 percent in 2015. • Edgar Savisaar from Estonia, taking the floor at a meeting of the EU's transport, telecommunications and energy council in Brussels, expressed concern over international energy trade. Savisaar, the minister heading the Estonian delegation, said the existing EU legislation is not sufficient for the development of energy trade. Savisaar said the existing EU energy legislation does create a framework for the opening of electricity and gas markets but does not sufficiently support establishment of international energy associations and in this connection also energy trade between member countries. It is important to update the technical regulation of the markets and their functioning on a uniform basis. Clear and unified regulations should be established also with regard to third countries, the Economic Affairs Ministry said. • Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas in Tallinn met with leaders of the Estonian Eesti Energia (Estonian Energy) power utility, one of the main issues of the brief meeting being a possible new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. The parties agreed that they would draw up a brief protocol of intent and would then jointly start looking into issues connected with construction of the power plant. Brazauskas said that the Baltic countries must certainly cooperate in the energy sphere, as it makes it possible to more effectively manage the systems. Lembit Vali, board member of Eesti Energia, said that preparations to construction of the nuclear power plant would last at least eight years. The Baltic countries' energy system needs new capacities in about 2016-1017 at the latest when the old power blocks of the Narva Power Plants 5 December 2005

have to be closed because of toughening environemental requirements and it is the last possible deadline for closure of the Ignalina plant. • The gas pipeline that Russia and Germany are planning to build on the bottom of the Baltic Sea may cause difficulties in the case if the Estlink power cable to be laid between Estonia and Finland should need repairs. "Thus, the Estlink underwater cable will remain underneath the planned gas pipeline, which may complicate repairs in the event of possible accidents in the future because the gas pipeline may prevent raising the cable to the surface," Indrek Aarna, board member of the Nordic Energy Link said. The planned Estlink cable route would also intersect with existing communications cables of lesser importance. To build the 110- million-euro cable and manage it later, the company Nordic Energy Link was established jointly by Eesti Energia, the Finnish companies Pohjolan Voima and Helsingin Energia, as well as the Latvian and Lithuanian power companies Latvenergo and Lietuvos Energija. • The Finnish gas company intends to lay a gas pipeline on the bottom of the sea between Estonia and Finland in collaboration with Eesti Gaas (Estonian Gas), the daily Eesti Paevaleht reported. The project called Balticcollector tentatively suggests building a gas pipeline from Turku, Finland, to the Estonian coastal town of Paldiski at a cost of 80-100 million euros. A connection from Paldiski to Saku, a small town to the south of Tallinn, would run on the ground. Via the new connection the Finns can use the existing gas storage facilities in Latvia to store a backup for peak consumption periods. Eesti Gaas already now is bringing in gas from the Latvian storage facilities during the time when consumption is at its highest in winter. Raul Kotov, director of the sales subsidiary of Eesti Gaas, said the Estonian company would have to finance the construction of 50 kilometers of pipeline from Paldiski to Saku. Of the studies' total cost of 2.5 million euros, half is provided by Gasum and half by the EU. Gasum has pledged to finish the surveys by the end of 2007, with the project to be ready in 2010 at the earliest.

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