Eesti in brief - 2011-01-20

A senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) vowed on Jan. 14 to enhance bilateral ties with Estonia, reports The People’s Daily Online. Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, praised the recent growth of relations and cooperation between the two nations, saying China values its ties with Estonia and regards the country as an important partner in the Baltic Sea region. China would encourage the exchange and communications between the two business communities and strengthen the humanitarian exchange between the two peoples, Li said. The Estonian parliamentary delegation arrived in China on Jan. 12.

Women who have children earn an average of 1.2 percent per child less than women who do not have children, a study on the gender wage gap in Estonia indicates, reports LETA. If a woman is in the age when an employer expects her to have a child, the wage of a childless woman can also be this much lower, one of the authors of the study, Sten Anspal from applied research center Centar said at a press conference. The study indicated that the wage gap between women and men in Estonia is the biggest (31-33 percent) in the age group of 25-44. The study focused on the years 2000-2008, when the wage gap on average was 28.7 percent. During the period the wage gap grew, and in 2007 it was the biggest in Europe.

Estonian Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi said faster inflation is “nothing tragic” and forecast the pace of price increases to moderate later this year, reports Bloomberg. “What will happen to inflation depends very much on other countries, on commodity prices in the world market,” said Ligi, whose country joined the eurozone on Jan. 1. Estonian inflation may accelerate to four percent this year after averaging three percent in 2010, the Finance Ministry said on Jan. 7.