Estonia’s Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, has submitted the draft state budget for 2024 to the parliament, the Riigikogu, for debate, ERR reports. Budget revenues will amount to EUR 16.79bn, expenses to EUR 17.67bn, and investments to EUR 0.82bn. The budget deficit is estimated at EUR 1.19bn or 2.8% of GDP, and the government therefore plans…
Estonia’s GDP will decline by 2.2% in 2023 and grow by 1.4% in 2024 and 4% in 2025, according to the Bank of Estonia’s latest forecast, ERR reports. In June 2023, the central bank projected a 1% drop in GDP in 2023 and a growth of 2.4% in 2024. Annual inflation will amount to 9.4%…
More prominent members of the opposition Estonian Centre Party (Keskerakond) have left the party after the election of Tallinn mayor Mihhail Kõlvart as the party’s new chairman, ERR reports. Former party board chair, Tallinn deputy mayor, and environment minister Tõnis Mölder and the party’s former defence spokesman, Neeme Väli, are the latest high-profile members to…
Prosecutors in Estonia suspect fuel retailer Olerex and its co-owner, Andres Linnas, of submitting false information to the Estonian Environmental Board (Keskkonnaamet), ERR reports, citing Eesti Päevaleht. Prosecutor Gerd Raudsepp said that Linnas had ordered Olerex employees to submit false information on a diesel fuel shipment to Estonia in December 2022. The company claimed that…
Estonia’s dwelling price index rose by 5% on year in the second quarter of 2023, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Apartment prices rose by 5.7% and house prices by 3.2%. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, the index rose by 3.8%. Meanwhile, the owner-occupied housing price index rose by 10.6% on…
A cyber attack disrupted ticket sales for Estonia’s passenger train operator, Elron, on 20 September 2023, ERR reports. Ticket sales were disrupted at POS terminals, on trains, and online. Passengers could pay for tickets by cash on the train, however. The disruption was due to repeated DDoS attacks by supporters of Russia against the provider…
The presidents of the Baltic States and Poland met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the transport of Ukrainian grain through EU ports, ERR reports. Estonian President Alar Karis noted that shipping Ukrainian grain via Baltic ports required cooperation with Poland. Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament,…
Estonia’s central bank, the Bank of Estonia, opposes the government’s plan to replace Estonia’s self-imposed budgetary discipline rules with the EU’s less stringent budget rules, ERR reports. Ülo Kaasik, vice-president of the Bank of Estonia, insisted that changing the rules simply because of an inability to meet them was never a good idea. He warned…
The Estonian government has agreed on the state budget for 2024, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced, ERR reports. Under the agreement, the government will introduce no new taxes in addition to ones implemented earlier. The government will not impose a new tax on commercial banks, which will instead pay more taxable dividends. Also, the government…
