Eesti in brief - 2012-01-12

  • 2012-01-11

The number of registered unemployed persons continued growing significantly during the first week of the new year, reports National Broadcasting. The unemployment rate has been growing for 11 weeks out of the past 12. Whereas during the previous working week, which was shortened due to the holiday season, only 25 persons were added to the ranks of the newly unemployed, this week the number grew by 352. During the past 12 weeks, the total number of persons registered as unemployed with the Unemployment Insurance Fund has grown by nearly 1,700. As of Jan. 5, 48,179 persons – i.e. 7.4 percent of the population of working age – have registered themselves as unemployed. Ida-Viru County continues to be the county with the highest registered unemployment rate (13.1 percent) and Tartu County has the lowest rate – 4.9 percent.

Brigadier General Riho Terras, the Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Defense Forces, made his first official bilateral foreign visit to Latvia, reports National Broadcasting. “The military national situation of Latvia is of vital interest to us, as Estonia and Latvia have shared similar fates for centuries,” said Terras. “Therefore, my first visit was to my Latvian brother in arms, Major General Raimonds Graube,” he explained. In addition to Major General Raimonds Graube, the Commander-in-Chief of the Latvian Defense Forces, BG Terras also met with the Latvian Minister of Defense Artis Pabriks. According to Terras, when speaking about the 12-year development plan for military defense in Latvia, both minister Pabriks and MG Graube expressed their firm willingness to consistently and systemically increase Latvia’s defense spending. The Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Defense Forces also placed a wreath at the foot of the monument of Oskars Kalpaks and visited the Adazi military base. The Adazi polygon is an important training facility for the units of the Estonian Defense Forces as well.

According to the Estonian Health Development Institute (HDI) heath statistics department, the total share of healthcare spending in the state’s GDP fell to 6.3 percent in 2010, at 908.1 million euros in current prices, reports Postimees Online. Compared to 2009, this was a 0.7 percent fall. It was caused by a general fall of healthcare spending and 3.4 percent growth of GDP. Since 1999, when statistical data collection on Estonia’s healthcare total spending was launched, till 2008, total spending grew each year, but since 2009, has fallen. The initial data on 2011 healthcare spending will be revealed in December 2012.