Estonia

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Country summary

Capital

Tallinn

Borders

Latvia 343 km, Russia 290 km

Government type

parliamentary republic

Population

1,299,371 (July 2010 est.)[1]

Population growth

-0.632% (2010 est.)[1]

Life expectancy

72.82 years[1]

Unemployment

13.8% (2009 est.)[1]

Index of Economic Freedom

16[2]

Corruption Perceptions Index

27[3]

Doing Business ranking

24[4]


After centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian rule, Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcibly incorporated into the USSR in 1940 - an action never recognized by the US - it regained its freedom in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the last Russian troops left in 1994, Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties with Western Europe. It joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.[1]

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: Estonian kroon, Euro (ISO code: EEK, EUR)
  • Central bank discount rate: [1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: 8.55% (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $6.106 billion (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $5.478 billion (31 December 2008)[1]

Notable events:

Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[6] 5 705 5 676 6 240 7 324 9 845 12 031 13 903 16 606 21 448 23 401
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[7] 6.872 6.346 7.411 7.829 7.955 5.389 4.846 4.095
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[8] 30.990 29.898 30.937 31.328 30.524 30.184 31.402 31.937
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[9] 29.488 27.734 27.903 27.490 27.629 26.859 26.728 26.844
Debt to revenue (years) 0.222 0.212 0.240 0.250 0.261 0.179 0.154 0.128

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 CIA - The World Factbook. "Estonia", from The World Factbook. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  2. Heritage Foundation. "Estonia", Economic Freedom Score. A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  3. Transparency International. "Estonia", Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. A lower ranking is better; but please note that the numbers cannot be compared between countries or years due to different methodology. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  4. Doing Business. "Estonia", Doing Business 2010 (part of The World Bank Group). A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  5. Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. "This Time is Different", Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6, p. 362. (The list does not claim to be complete.) Referenced 2011-07-19.
  6. World Bank. "Estonia: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  7. World Bank. "Estonia: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  8. World Bank. "Estonia: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  9. World Bank. "Estonia: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.

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