Estonia

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.

Economical characteristics

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

Statistics

Statistic / Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
GDP (million USD)	5 705	5 676	6 240	7 324	9 845	12 031	13 903	16 606	21 448	23 401
Govt. debt (% of GDP)		6.872	6.346	7.411	7.829	7.955	5.389	4.846	4.095
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)		30.990	29.898	30.937	31.328	30.524	30.184	31.402	31.937
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)		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.

External links

• Estonia on Wikipedia
• Central bank of Estonia
• Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
• Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
• BBC country profile
• Ministers offer Estonia entry to eurozone January 1 - Estonia to enter the Eurozone by January 1st, 2011