International credit rating agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed Estonia’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at A+ with a stable outlook, ERR reports. The rating reflects Estonia’s strong governance standards and institutions, low public debt, and net external creditor position, Fitch stated. At the same time, Estonia’s lower income per capita and small economy expose the…
The state-run development agencies of the three Baltic States have signed an agreement to increase bilateral and trilateral cooperation, ERR reports. The agreement will allow the Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV), Latvia’s Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFLA), and Lithuania’s Central Project Management Agency (CPVA) to share information and expertise more effectively. The three…
The deputy speaker of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, former prime minister Jüri Ratas, announced that he has quit the Estonian Centre Party (Keskerakond) and joined the Fatherland (Isamaa) party, ERR reports. He said that the values of the Centre Party’s leadership no longer coincided with his own. Ratas was replaced as party chairman by…
Estonia and Latvia have joined several other countries in suspending funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), ERR and LETA reported. The move comes after allegations that several members of UNRWA’s staff had taken part in the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on 7 October 2023. The Estonian and Latvian foreign ministries…
Estonia’s and Finland’s electrcity transmission system operators, Elering and Fingrid, have located a fault in the EstLink 2 undersea power cable between the two countries, ERR reports. The location is in the vicinity of the cable landing point on the Estonian coast. The operators concluded that the fault was not caused by external damage. The…
The EstLink 2 submarine power cable between Estonia and Finland went offline on the night of 25-26 January 2024, ERR reported. The cause and exact location of the outage are still unknown. Estonia’s transmission system operator, Elering, assured that there was no threat to the security of electricity supplies to Estonia. The EstLink 1 power…
Estonia’s second-largest commercial bank, SEB Pank, posted a net profit of EUR 231.7mn in 2023, which was a double increase from EUR 115.9mn in 2022, ERR reports. SEB’s operating income amounted to EUR 356mn (EUR 206.9mn) and operating expenses to EUR 78.4mn (EUR 69.1mn). CEO Allan Parik attributed the high profit to the rapid rise…
The representative of the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama, in Northern Europe, Sonam Frasi, and the head of the Tibetan government in exile, Penpa Tsering, visited the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, ERR reports. The Tibetan representatives talked at a hearing on the legal status of Tibet. The event was organised by…
The Estonian government plans to split the state-owned energy group, Eesti Energia, into three separate companies, Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev announced, ERR reports. He said that the plan was to list shares of network operator Elektrilevi and renewable energy producer Enefit Green on the stock exchange. However, Võrklaev said that he was no longer in…