Estonia’s opposition conservative Fatherland (Isamaa) party remained the country’s most popular political party in August 2024, according to the latest Norstat poll for the Institute for Societal Research (YI), ERR reports. Isamaa’s support among voters now stands at 27.6%, followed by the ruling Estonian Reform Party with 19.4% and its coalition partner, the Social Democratic…
Raising Estonia’s defence spending to 5% of GDP would be unfeasible, Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi stated, ERR reports. Earlier, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur suggested that NATO’s new defence plans meant that Estonia would have to raise its defence budget from the current 3% of GDP to somewhere less than 5% over a period of 20…
Estonia’s industrial production declined by 5.8% at constant prices on year in July 2024, according to Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Output rose by 16.9% in mining and 16.3% in electricity production, but fell by 7.8% in manufacturing. The volume of industrial production declined in more than two thirds of manufacturing sectors. Meanwhile, sales of manufacturing…
Latvia’s national air carrier, airBaltic, will open flights to several new destinations from the three Baltic capitals in summer 2025, including five from Tallinn, four from Riga, and seven from Vilnius, LRT reports. The company will offer flights from Tallinn to Tirana in Albania, to Hamburg in Germany, to Reykjavik in Iceland, and to Barcelona…
The National Audit Office of Estonia (Riigikontroll) found significant errors in the 2023 state budget act despite the overall accuracy of the state’s financial accounts, ERR reports. Key issues included incorrect recording of transactions in the budgets of the ministries of economy, regional affairs, and agriculture, leading to a discrepancy of EUR 122mn. Additionally, the…
Estonian MPs visiting China should not have allowed China to pay for their travel costs, Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, stated, ERR reports. Pointing to China’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine and opposition to NATO enlargement, Mihkelson said that it would have been better if…
Estonia was the world’s largest exporter of prefabricated wooden houses in 2023, ELTA reports, citing Lithuanian business news portal Verslo Zinios. Estonia had a global market share of 21.5%, followed by Lithuania with 9.3% and Poland with 8%. Estonia’s exports of wooden buildings totalled EUR 390mn in 2023. Lithuania came in second with EUR 164mn, which…
Estonia’s state-owned aviation group, Nordic Aviation Group (Nordica), posted an unaudited net loss of EUR 19.146mn in 2023, which was down from a profit of EUR 1.514mn in 2022, ERR reports. The company has failed to submit an audited annual report to the commercial register on time. Nordica’s annual revenue totalled EUR 107.266mn, which was…
Estonia was “very disappointed” that Mongolia decided to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said, BNS reports. He reminded that all parties to the Rome Statute are obligated to comply with the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Putin. The fact that the Mongolian government decided to…
