While road maintenance machinery producer Sami Tootmise had a difficult start to last year, the second half of 2024 went much better.

"In the second half of the year, things started picking up, and, so far, that upswing has continued. For the first quarter of this year and the second quarter, there is only on an increase, so that is only positive. In today's world, it's hard to be sure of anything, but we're still looking on the positive side. We are also recruiting and at the moment we are growing," said Antti Pahapill, CEO of Sami Tootmise.

According to Statistics Estonia, Estonian industry has now emerged from recession.

"It depends on what you produce. Some say it's stayed the same, but there are also companies like us who are expecting 10 to 20 percent volume growth this year," Pahapill said.

While the statistics show that the Estonian economy emerged from recession in the fourth quarter of last year, the expectations that might happen were already there.

"Somewhere in the middle of last year, industry started to do better. What we saw was that exports to euro zone countries were already beginning to grow in the middle of the year on a monthly basis. Then, towards the end of the year, in the fourth quarter, exports to non-euro zone countries strengthened. This does not necessarily imply growth on a year-to-year basis, but the increase was clearly visible via these indicators," explained Eesti Pank economist Kaspar Oja.

According to Oja, the economic growth at the end of the year was faster than expected, while growth expectations for this year are rather modest.

"This is quite peculiar for Estonia when emerging from economic crisis, because usually we have seen that we go down fast and go up faster. At the moment, companies are expecting pretty stable growth," he said.

Eesti Pank forecast economic growth of 1.6 percent for last year, while the Estonian Ministry of Finance predicted it would be at 2.1 percent.

With the U.S. threatening to impose tariffs on the European Union, should they come into force, the resulting trade war would also have an impact on the Estonian economy.

"We are certainly concerned about the consequences of these too, but nowhere do the forecasts yet take this into account. Whatever these threats are, 25 percent tariffs would certainly be very damaging for both economies, Europe and the U.S. By how much is hard to say, but they will be felt. [There will be a] tangible economic slowdown," said Estonian Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi (Reform).

The Ministry of Finance is due to publish its spring economic forecast in April.

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