Second-hand car market in Estonia down 26 percent

At the time when it has become increasingly difficult to lease new cars and people have been postponing purchase decisions, companies say that volumes in the second-hand car market are down between 15 and 25 percent. Urmas Karik, CEO of Veho Eesti that sells Honda and Citroen cars, says very few people are currently buying cars. «But we did well in September that was the best sales month for the year for us when we sold 133 second-hand cars.» Raul Kivirand from A2-Autowelt that sells second-hand cars says that many customers are looking for exchanging their more expensive cars with cheaper ones. «People simply want to cut their large leasing bills,» he said. Car dealers say that many leasing companies have confiscated luxury cars from customers who have not kept up payments and put them on sale.

Estonian October CPI slips below 10 pct

Estonian consumer price inflation fell below 10 percent in October for the first time since the end of last year, data showed on Friday. The rate of price rises in the small Baltic state have been easing as the economy has slowed sharply. The government hopes inflation will ease further so Estonia can be ready to adopt the euro in 2011. The consumer price index rose 9.8 percent year-on-year in October with a 0.4 percent rise on the month, the state statistics office said in a statement. Inflation was last below 10 percent in December, at 9.6 percent. The office said the 0.4 percent monthly increase in October was driven mostly by increases in the price of heating and natural gas, both of which rose more than 20 percent, counterbalanced by a fall in automotive fuel prices.

Estonia has fourth place in economic freedom

Estonia s position in the chart of 25 European countries is swinging from 4th place in economic freedom to last place in percentage of prisoners and HIV-positives, postimees.ee reports. Estonia is among the best countries for economic freedom, internet users percentage (10th place), economy s competitiveness (13th place and corruption level (13th place), Mati Heidmets, professor at Tallinn University said at seminar «Estonia s life quality compared to Europe s». We re in the middle of list with numbers of computers per households (15th place), buying power according to GDP (19th place) and in satisfaction with life (place 19). Estonia is among the worst countries in human development index (place 22), suicides (place 22), life expectancy (places 23-25), gender equality (places 18-22), expenses on social defence (place 23) and in attitude to multi culture (place 24).

Enterprise Estonia starts winter campaigns introducing Estonia as a tourism destination

At the end of October Enterprise Estonia started large-scale campaigns introducing Estonia in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain and Russia with the aim to popularize Estonia as a tourism destination and arouse interest towards Estonia as the place of spending one s vacation during the winter period, EAS announced. According to Tarmo Mutso, the director of Estonian Tourist Board, the campaigns held in St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Oslo focus mainly on the possibilities to spend one s vacation in the city, the campaign planned in Helsinki mainly on wellness and relaxation. The small-scale activities directed to the end consumers have been also planned in London. «The target group of winter campaigns is in average in the age of 35-55 to market Estonia as a tourism destination in also these age groups who mostly visit Estonia, « Mutso said and reminded that the campaign of Ispace Tallinn Estonia held from October up to December in MTV channels introduces at the same time the Estonian possibilities for tourism to the younger target groups in the age of 25-35.

Falling share prices make Tallinn Stock Exchange a world loser

Tallinn Stock Exchange Index OMX that was down 1.7 percent yesterday made TSE one of the three bourses that fell most in the world. Unlike most other bourses in the world, share prices continued to fall in Tallinn and was ahead only of Sofia and Belgrade bourses in terms of share index yesterday. The biggest turnover was recorded in Estonian Telecom whose price fell 2 percent to 76.6 kroons at a turnover of 8.5 million kroons. The biggest loser was Arco Vara that closed at 3.6 kroons or its all-time low. Also shares of Ekspress Grupp and Olympic Entertainment Group reached their historic lows yesterday. Source http: balticbusinessnews.com default2.aspx

Estonian tax rules again under criticism from the Commission

Less than a month ago, the Commission closed infringement proceedings against Estonia over discrimination of foreign pension funds but on 16 October 2008, a new infringement proceeding against Estonia was announced (Commission s press release IP 08 1532). The goal of infringement proceedings is to ensure uniform and common application of Community law in the Member States. It represents the second step of three-step proceedings and Estonia has two months to react to it. If the outcome is not satisfactory to the parties, the Commission may bring the matter before the European Court of Justice. This time, the problem is the taxation of pensions paid to non-resident pensioners in Estonia. Namely, Estonian resident pensioners have the right to deduct up to 63 000 kroons (personal allowance of 27 000 kroons plus additional personal allowance of 36 000 for pensions) from income in the calendar year.

AFP: Baltic states to get US visa waiver on November 17

Speaking in the Latvian capital Riga, US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said the three Baltic states would join Washington s visa waiver programme on the same day as a handful of other countries, the majority from the ex-communist bloc. The countries will be on equal footing with western Europe, Chertoff told reporters. Later Wednesday, Chertoff visited neighbouring Estonia. There, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told AFP that the visa waiver would certainly strengthen ties between Tallinn and Washington and was a sure indication of our good, tight relations and cooperation. Chertoff was scheduled to travel to Lithuania Thursday. US President George W. Bush earlier this month announced that visa waivers would be granted to citizens of the Baltic states, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, which were Soviet satellites but not formally under Moscow s control, plus South Korea.

Baltic markets still shaky, but investors starting to return

The NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia suffered the biggest hit of the day, down 4.67 per cent. The Vilnius exchange in Lithuania was down 1.73 per cent. Meanwhile, Riga dipped just 0.75 per cent, despite the suffering of three of the larger listed Latvian companies. Drinks maker Latvijas Balzams, steel producer Liepajas Metalurgs and pharmaceuticals manufacturer Rigas Farmaceitiska Fabrika all suffered double-digit falls in their share prices. The Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), which includes data from all three exchanges, closed down 3.88 per cent, at 299.17, repeating a similar fall from the day before. It is the first time the BBI has dipped below the 300 mark since February 2004. Indars Ascuks, head of development at NASDAQ OMX Baltic markets told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa: Crossing the 300-point mark today does not have a strong psychological effect because investors in the Baltics have witnessed high volatility and price fluctuations for a year already.

President: Estonia quite untouched by financial crisis

So far Estonia has been quite untouched by financial crisis and that is mainly due Estonian banking s integration with Nordic financial sector, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said at the meeting with German President Horst Köhler, postimees.ee writes. «Estonian economy s adaption began a year before financial crisis reached Europe, but next couple of years will be certainly complicated in economic policy means for Estonia,» Ilves said. Presidents said it must be and it is in EU s interest to restore the trust of banks and citizens, also general balance on world s financial markets. «In world s extension there are currently at least two problems in addition to stabilising financial markets it s necessary to avoid financial problems escalation into general economic crisis,» Ilves noted. He added that it needs coordinated activities both, in EU and larger international scale.

The freest media among Baltic countries - in Estonia

The media in Lithuania is becoming freer and freer, shows the research conducted by the international organization Reporters Without Borders. Estonia was ranked the third and Latvia 12th. This year, Lithuania shares the 16th place with the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Portugal in the international rating. Last year, our country occupied the 23rd place and two years ago Lithuania was ranked 27th. According to the research, Lithuanian journalists have higher press freedom than Germans, Brits and French, yet they are less free than their colleagues in other Baltic states. According to the annual rating, Iceland s and Norwegian journalists have the highest freedom of press. Estonia was ranked the third. Latvia also did better than our country it was ranked the 12th. A total of 173 countries were ranked. All EU member states were listed among the top 50 positions, except Bulgaria (51st position) and Poland (56th position).