Estonia economy on the road to recovery

Nov 20, 2009
TBT Staff

Some fear the country adopting the euro before its neighbors would give it an unfair advantage in attracting investors.

TALLINN - Estonia is set to become the next eurozone member as analysts and the OECD predict the country's economy will begin to turn around.

“Estonia will be the next country to adopt the euro,”Thomas Laursen, the World Bank’s country manager for Poland and the Baltics, told Bloomberg.

European Commission's Vice President and European Commissioner for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud Siim Kallas also said on Nov. 20 that the country would likely be able to meet its 2011 goal to adopt the euro.

LETA reported that the commissioner said Estonia will most probably join the eurozone in 2011 - at least three years before Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania are likely to be able to adopt the currency.

Kallas also told LETA that the earlier entry of Estonia into the eurozone would not mean the country would be able to attract investors away from the other Baltic States.

The comments came on the same day a new OECD report found that the Estonian economy is on the verge of a turnaround.

OECD forecasts Estonia, a candidate state of the organisation, will face a GDP decrease of 14.4 percent this year, 0.8 percent in 2010 and economic growth of 3.9 percent in 2011. 

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