Posting on his social media account, Manan Anwar, originally from Pakistan, said: "Estonia is expensive. Estonia has been very expensive for quite a lot of time."

"If you're living in Estonia, you're not working in the tech sector and you're earning the average wage, or not so much more than the average wage, you will struggle a lot, and I don't recommend anybody who is not in the tech sector to come to Estonia. At all."

"Even before COVID, as I said in one of my previous videos, I was one of the very few persons who in 2019 said that Estonia is very, very expensive when it comes to simple items such as groceries, as compared with even the more wealthy countries, for example, Sweden," Anwar went on.

"At that time, people made a lot of fun of me and said you are making comparisons of too many dissimilar things – but now, with inflation rising and the cost of living in Estonia, everybody tends to agree with me that the cost of living in Estonia has increased quite dramatically, and that the people who have been hit the most are the people who are in the service sector. For example, we have policemen, we have firefighters, we have people in the service sector, including waiters – and these are the people that are struggling the most to make ends meet," he continued.

@manananwar41 Estonia's Invisible Cost of Living Crisis #estonia #visitestonia #estonian #estoniandesign #estoniangirl #madeinestonia #travelinestonia #estoniannature #welcometoestonia #vscoestonia #estoniandogs #estoniansummer #travelestonia #estonianfashion #tallinnestonia #estonianphotographer #estonianarta ♬ original sound - Manan

"And that is exactly the reason why I see that if you live in Estonia, either you should have an income that is from the tech sector – because in the tech sector you are probably earning twice or thrice the average salary in Estonia, or you should definitely have an income from outside Estonia, and you live in Estonia, because that way you can really save some money and invest it somewhere," Anwar, who has elsewhere stated he has taken Estonian citizenship, concluded.

Postimees reported that some of the many commenters on his video agreed, with one noting that they were on subsistence wages, with little to no scope for saving or investing, even when being paid well above the national average per month; "My salary is €2,000 to €3,000, and even I struggle," the commenter wrote.

Even setting up a business, usually seen as a path to a good income if successful, is according to another commenter "like walking on the edge of a cliff," given that a single bad month could lead to bankruptcy, while even in the better months "my income is lower than in the service sector."

The national average wage stood at €1,959 per month gross as of the third quarter of 2024, while the minimum wage is set at €886 per month for 2025.

Inflation rose by 4.1 percent on year to December 2024, according to freshly released data, and prices  were 3.7 percent higher on average for 2024, compared with 2023. The on-month average price rise stood at 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile the on-year inflation rise in September last year was double the Eurozone average.

The causes behind high levels of inflation in Estonia are complex; while the finger is often pointed at "greed-flation" markups, a very simplified definition of inflation involving too much money chasing too little goods and services could apply.

In any case the ongoing energy crisis, the effects of the war in Ukraine and conflict elsewhere, supply chain issues relating to Estonia's location and size, new and increased taxation, and the fact that control of the money supply lies outside of the country, are all among the likely contributors. Rising inflation has also been seen across the region and beyond.

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