Estonia’s general government budget deficit stood at EUR 342 million as of the end of August, the Ministry of Finance has said. This represented 0.8% of expected annual GDP – a fall of EUR 207 million. As of the end of August, central government – meaning mainly the state budget – had a deficit of…
In the first eight months of 2025, the state budget received EUR 10 billion in taxes – nearly EUR 1 billion more than during the same period last year. In August, the state treasury received EUR 1.27 billion in taxes – EUR 116 million more than in August of the previous year. 90% of August’s…
In 2024, criminals stole a total of EUR 2.3 million from Estonian citizens through bank fraud, while in the first 8 months of 2025 alone, EUR 6.1 million was stolen. The number of fraud cases and the average loss per case have also more than doubled. June saw a record high, as total losses exceeded…
The Estonian government has decided to redirect EUR 39 million from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility to the construction of the Ulemiste terminal and Rapla-Lelle railway section of Rail Baltica. As it is not possible to use all the funds provided by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility until next spring’s deadline, the Estonian…
Many popular and widely available plant-based meat alternatives are highly processed and high in salt and saturated fats, says Estonian researcher Liis Lutter. Climate scientists urge cutting meat to protect the environment, but the health effects of these substitutes remain largely unknown. “We see that we should reduce meat consumption to lower our environmental footprint,…
Estonia’s central bank, which forecast 1.5% growth this spring, now expects 0.6% for 2025, but has raised its 2026 outlook from 2.6% to 3.2%. According to the central bank, next year’s economic growth is expected to stem from additional borrowing directed into the economy by the government. The economy’s own growth conditions are forecast to…
Kaspar Oja, an economist at the Bank of Estonia (Eesti Pank), said government sector spending had increased in Estonia as well as in other European countries over the past five years. In Estonia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, the growth has been sharper, partly because of higher defense spending. In Estonia, government sector expenditures have…