18.09.18 ... While all three coalition parties proposed changes to excise duties and taxes during budget talks, the state budget has essentially been drawn up by now and it isn't expected to contain any major changes.
18.09.18 ... Retail forex broker Tallinex OÜ, which was punished in Estonia in 2016 already for operating without an activity license, was ordered by a US federal court to pay more than $10 million in restitution to US customers as well as a civil penalty of $681,888.
18.09.18 ... In its newly released manifesto, the Estonian Employers' Confederation (ETK) emphasised the importance of a simple tax system and added that tax increases must be stopped.
17.09.18 ... A total of 305,500 passengers passed through Tallinn Airport in August 2018, marking an increase of 11.5% on year.
16.09.18 ... According to Bank of Estonia economist Kaspar Oja, the rate of labour participation among Estonian residents will increase over the next 30 years, even when taking into account the impact of the ageing society.
16.09.18 ... Regional Jet OÜ, a subsidiary of Nordic Aviation Group AS, the Estonian state-owned airline company operating under the Nordica brand, began operating flights between the Swedish cities of Stockholm, Gällivare and Arvidsjaur on Saturday.
16.09.18 ... US law enforcement agencies are probing Danske Bank, Denmark's largest bank, over allegations of massive money laundering flows from Russia and former Soviet states through the bank's Estonian branch, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
15.09.18 ... Utility company Eesti Energia may hold more media headlines, with its wind farm acquisitions, green energy and charges of monopoly behaviour. But there is another utility – not nationwide and with a smaller turnover, but still providing for one third of the Estonian population with an absolute essential, water – which merits a closer look.
14.09.18 ... Tallinn-based customer relations management (CRM) firm Pipedrive has made Forbes' 2018 Cloud 100 top global private cloud companies' list.
14.09.18 ... UK Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling (Conservative) hopes to coordinate air and road transport with Estonia and all EU member states, with a no-deal Brexit contingency plan if required.
14.09.18 ... Deutsche Bank warned Danske Bank in 2015 that it would only be comfortable dealing with one in ten of a sample of customers at Danske's Estonian branch, Financial Times reports.
13.09.18 ... A bill for the termination of the procedure for a national designated spatial plan with a view to building large pulp mill in Tartu County has been completed in the Ministry of Finance.
13.09.18 ... Nordic banks Nordea and DNB are selling a 60% stake in Luminor, a bank operating in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, to a consortium led by private equity funds managed by US investment giant Blackstone.
13.09.18 ... The amount of money necessary for the payment of unemployment insurance benefits in Estonia is set to grow by a quarter over the next four years to €65.7 million in 2022.
12.09.18 ... Changes implemented to Tartu-Helsinki flight schedules this April have not had a positive impact on passenger numbers at Tartu Airport. While August 2016 saw nearly 2,800 passengers on flights served by Tartu Airport, just 2,003 passengers flew on the airport's Tartu-Helsinki-Tartu route last month.
12.09.18 ... More than 1,500 young people found seasonal work in Estonia's retail sector this summer, nearly one tenth of whom will continue working either part- or full-time following the end of the season.
11.09.18 ... Estonian company Cybernetica is developing a data exchange layer for Greenland similar to the X-Road solution being used in Estonia. Greenland's system, however, will be called Pitu.
11.09.18 ... The Estonian economy is set to grow by 3.6% this year and by 3% in 2019, the Ministry of Finance said in its summer economic forecast published on Tuesday.
11.09.18 ... An extraordinary general shareholder meeting of the listed casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group AS (OEG) on Monday decided to approve the takeover of minority shareholder-held shares of OEG by Odyssey EUrope AS for a monetary compensation of €1.40 per share.
11.09.18 ... President Kersti Kaljulaid is to depart for a working visit to China next week, where she is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang as well as participate in the annual technology and innovation conference of the World Economic Forum in Tianjin.
11.09.18 ... According to Minister of the Interior Andres Anvelt (SDE), in order to alleviate labour market concerns, trade unions and employers should agree to sector-based average wages and immigration quotas.
10.09.18 ... Statistics Estonia reported on Monday that exports of goods increased by 27% and imports by 18% in July compared to the same month of the previous year. The growth in trade was affected the most by a significant increase in the trade of mineral products, including fuel additives, shale oil, motor spirit and heavy fuel oil. The trade of mineral products trade also increased in both quantity and value, with exports tripling and imports doubling.
09.09.18 ... African swine fever (ASF) has devastated pig farming in Estonia. Only 14% of the number of farms in 2014 remains, says UK daily The Guardian, with small-holdings especially ravaged.
08.09.18 ... Illicit transactions via Denmark's Danske Bank, accused of laundering Russian money through its Estonian subsidiary, are on a far larger scale than originally thought, says CEO Ole Andersen.
07.09.18 ... International digital security company and former supplier of Estonian ID cards Gemalto AG has said that it wants a compromise with the Estonian state. The stance of the latter so far has been to pursue a lawsuit against Gemalto regarding compensation to to the Estonian state to the tune of €1.5 million following a security flaw in ID cards made by Gemalto which came to light in summer 2017.
07.09.18 ... The erstwhile functions of military intelligence need to be restored in Estonia, and stricter controls implemented, when recruiting high ranking officials of other ethnic nationalities to Estonian institutions such as the military, chair of the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) and deputy chairman of the parliament's national defence committee Mart Helme said on Friday.
07.09.18 ... Statistics Estonia reported on Friday that there were some 11,400 job vacancies in Estonia's businesses, institutions and organisations in the second quarter of 2018. Compared to the first quarter, that means the number of job vacancies increased by 8%, but compared to the same period of 2017 the number has gone down by 5%.
07.09.18 ... According to Statistics Estonia, the change of the consumer price index in August 2018 was 0.5% compared to July 2018 and 3.6% compared to August of the previous year.
05.09.18 ... Changes to the law in the Russian Federation has meant that drivers of leased cars have to pay a guarantee to cross the border from Estonia, it is reported.
04.09.18 ... The state should consider the introduction of a reduced social tax rate as an incentive either under the existing system of no corporate income tax, in its place, or as an option available to businesses, President Kersti Kaljulaid said in an interview with ERR's Vikerraadio on Tuesday.
04.09.18 ... According to the Financial Times, an independent investigation has found that up to $30 billion were moved through the Estonian branch of Danske Bank within just a single year out of Russia and other countries in the former Soviet Union.
03.09.18 ... Consumer prices in Estonia rose by 79.5% between 2000 and 2017, more then twice the EU average of 36.5% and fifth in Europe, Eurostat, the European Commission's statistical agency said on Monday.
02.09.18 ... Fuel seller Olerex introduced a new cash withdrawal service at all of its 82 manned service stations across Estonia on 1 September. The service is connected to a minimum purchase of at least €1.
01.09.18 ... Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kadri Simson (Centre) met with Peter Vesterbacka on Friday. Vesterbacka, who leads a group pushing the development of plans for a Tallinn-Helsinki railway tunnel, introduced Simson to the details of his group's plans for what by now is referred to as the FinEst Bay Area.
31.08.18 ... Air services to Estonia's second-largest island, Hiiumaa, are to resume on Saturday, 1 September, after a two-week interruption caused by renovation work at the island's airport.
31.08.18 ... Whilst ride-sharing service Uber has hiked its prices at least in Tallinn, Estonian taxi-hailing app Taxify has announced that it is not not planning to follow suit and that its pricing policy will remain as it is for the forseeable future.
31.08.18 ... Swedish furniture giant IKEA is in the process of discussions and market research on a possible expansion to Estonia. IKEA just opened a 34,500 sq. m branch in the Latvian capital, Riga, on Thursday.
31.08.18 ... Plans to build residential and commercial buildings in the Ülemiste district of Tallinn have been blocked by the Tallinn City Government, business daily Äripäev reports.
30.08.18 ... The turnover of retail trade enterprises increased by 2% year-on-year (y-o-y) in July 2018, according to Statistics Estonia.
29.08.18 ... Citing high prices for organically grown grain, Estonian Spirit OÜ, the only functioning Estonian alcoholic spirits producer, is set to cut output by as much as half and lay off employees at its Rakvere distillery. The move comes in the wake of a greatly reduced grain harvest in 2018 due to the long, hot and dry summer, and the raising of alcohol excise duties in recent years by the coalition government, as well as a fall in the number of Finnish tourists visiting Estonia.
29.08.18 ... According to Statistics Estonia, in the second quarter of 2018 the total profit of the business sector was €726 million, which is 12% less than in the same period the year before.
28.08.18 ... Oman's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has imposed an import ban on Estonian fish. No official reason for the decision has been given, it is reported.
28.08.18 ... Statistics Estonia reported that in the second quarter of 2018 the average monthly gross wage and salary amounted to €1,321, an increased by 6.4% compared to the second quarter of last year. The year-on-year growth in average monthly gross wages and salaries was 1.3% slower than in the previous quarter.
27.08.18 ... The new Haabersti junction in Tallinn is to formally open on Tuesday. Ranking as one of the biggest road intersections in western Tallinn and located close to the Rocca Al Mare shopping centre, work had been in progress on the junction since April 2017, including the building of a flyover to replace the existing, dated ground level roundabout when following the Paldiski Highway route, a project which cost a reported €20.2 million.
27.08.18 ... LHV Pank (Bank) has announced that it is to start accepting applications for state-guaranteed study loans, becoming in the process the fourth bank so far in Estonia to provide this type of loan.
27.08.18 ... According to Statistics Estonia, the total domestic and international production of Estonian construction enterprises increased by 20% in the second quarter of 2018. Taking into account only the Estonian construction market, construction volume increased by 22%.
26.08.18 ... Former Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee Urmas Kruuse (Reform) has put a question to Prime Minister Jüri Ratas concerning governmental assistance to farmers for dealing with the effects of the long period of drought this summer.
25.08.18 ... Chair of the Estonian Hotel and Restaurant Association (EHRL) Verni Loodma has said that a tourist tax would not have a positive impact on Tallinn's competitiveness.
24.08.18 ... The European Chamber (EuCham), an independent institution representing the interests of national and international companies doing business in Europe, has ranked Estonia 12th in its Best European Countries for Business 2018 report.
24.08.18 ... Estonian households continued to borrow enthusiastically in July, with demand for housing and consumer lows remaining high last month, the Bank of Estonia said on Friday.
