Overview: Bolstered by a widespread national desire to reintegrate into Western Europe, the Estonian government has pursued a program of market reforms and rough stabilization measures, which is rapidly transforming the economy. Two years after independence - and one year after the introduction of the kroon - Estonians are beginning to reap tangible benefits; inflation is low; production declines appear to have bottomed out; and living standards are rising. Economic restructuring is clearly underway with the once-dominant energy-intensive heavy industrial sectors giving way to labor-intensive light industry and the underdeveloped service sector. The private sector is growing rapidly; the share of the state enterprises in retail trade has steadily declined and by June 1993 accounted for only 12.5% of total turnover, and 70,000 new jobs have reportedly been created as a result of new business start-ups. Estonia's foreign trade has shifted rapidly from East to West with the Western industrialized countries now accounting for two-thirds of foreign trade.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $8.8 billion (1993 estimate from the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as extrapolated to 1993 using official Estonian statistics, which are very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)

National product real growth rate: -5% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $5,480 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.6% per month (1993 average)

Unemployment rate: 3.5% (May 1993); but large number of underemployed workers

Budget:
revenues: $223 million
expenditures: $142 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992)

Exports: $765 million (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities: textile 14%, food products 11%, vehicles 11%, metals 11% (1993)
partners: Russia, Finland, Latvia, Germany, Ukraine

Imports: $865 million (c.i.f., 1993)
commodities: machinery 18%, fuels 15%, vehicles 14%, textiles 10% (1993)
partners: Finland, Russia, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands

External debt: $650 million (end of 1991)

Industrial production: growth rate -27% (1993)

Electricity:
capacity: 3,700,000 kW
production: 22.9 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 14,245 kWh (1992)

Industries: accounts for 42% of labor force; oil shale, shipbuilding, phosphates, electric motors, excavators, cement, furniture, clothing, textiles, paper, shoes, apparel

Agriculture: employs 20% of work force; very efficient by Soviet standards; net exports of meat, fish, dairy products, and potatoes; imports of feedgrains for livestock; fruits and vegetables

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for illicit drugs from Central and Southwest Asia and Latin America to Western Europe; limited illicit opium producer; mostly for domestic consumption

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (1992), $10 million

Currency: 1 Estonian kroon (EEK) = 100 cents (introduced in August 1992)
Exchange rates: kroons (EEK) per US$1 - 13.9 (January 1994), 13.2 (1993); note - kroons are tied to the German Deutschmark at a fixed rate of 8 to 1

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Estonia on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Estonia Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Estonia Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.