Competition Brings Down Price of Milk

The major Estonian chain stores have recently lowered the price of milk as competition has toughened, the daily Postimees wrote.
The price of the cheapest, 2.5 percent fat content milk in the Prisma chain has dropped by 0.30 kroons (about EUR 0.019 in the past few weeks, while Rimi has brought the price down by 1.70 kroons, the paper wrote.
Prisma spokeswoman Kadri Lainas said they had promised to offer the best prices to their consumers and it was in the name of that promise that they had done it. “Dairies have not lowered their sale prices, so the present fall in the price is our own initiative,” she said.
Rimi Eesti marketing director Evelin Magioja said their chain had adjusted the prices of many staples, including that of milk. She said that they were not trading at a loss, but were not earning any profit either.
Maxima spokesman Erkki Erilaid said they had lowered the price of Maag Piimatoostus, as Maag had lowered its price as well. Other producers have not done it, however.
Ulo Kivine, CEO of Estonia’s biggest dairy company, AS Tere, said there was tough competition between traders. But dairies are not planning to lower their sale prices, although the price of raw milk had fallen by one tenth in the recent months, Kivine said.
Export prices, which account for a large proportion of the Estonian dairies’ revenues, have recently fallen by nearly one third.

Source: Estonian Review

Estonian Container Terminal Posts Growth in Transit Volumes

According to Muuga Container Terminal (Muuga CT) transit trade is not falling and it is possible to speak about growth on the basis of statistics of the past few weeks.
Muuga CT, which specializes on container handling at Port of Tallinn’s Muuga Harbour, said that there has been stable growth in carriage only from the sea — that is import and transit import.
“In the recent weeks, it is even possible to speak about growth in Estonian transit,” Muuga CT board chairman Sergei Artyomov said.
This year the company is planning to handle 210,000 units (TEU) against 181,000 TEU last year.
But the load of the terminal is currently only 50-55 of the capacity, because the present capacity of the terminal is 350,000 TEU per year and by the end of Q4 the figure will grow to 400,000 TEU a year.
Muuga CT, which belongs to the Transiidikeskus AS group, is a multifunctional container terminal at Muuga Harbour. The company employs 160 people.

Source: Estonian Review

Last Year’s Turnover of Norby Telecom Totals EUR 5.3 Million

The consolidated turnover of Estonia’s Norby Telecom AS totalled 85 million kroons (EUR 5.43 mln) last year.
Board chairman of the company Oleg Shvaikovsky said that Norby’s operating profit before depreciation (EBITDA) was 13.5 million kroons.
Shvaikovsky added that the company had plans to bring his Latvian colleagues into the board and thus make the board stronger.
The company will release the financial results endorsed by the shareholders in the first half of June.
Norby Telecom made 3.61 million kroons of loss in 2006 and 13.03 million kroons in 2005.
The company’s sales proceeds amounted to 26 million kroons in 2006.

Source: Estonian Review

Estonian Air Has Fully Passed To E-Tickets System

The Estonian national carrier Estonian Air no longer issues paper tickets and has fully passed to an e-tickets system.
Estonian Air spokeswoman Ilona Eskelinen said that travel agencies issue e-tickets already since May 13, noting that issue of paper tickets was not a matter of the past.
But Eskelinen added that passengers who booked tickets before May 3 but had not yet retrieved the tickets or had not received confirmation of e-tickets to their e-mail address would have to retrieve paper tickets from the ticket office.

Source: Estonian Review

Estonian Company to Complete First Romanian Investment

IPC Group, an investment company belonging to the Estonian businessman Peep Aaviksoo, is concluding its first major investment program in Romania.
“The primary investment investors made in the framework of the First IPC Romanian Issue has doubled in two years,” IPC partner Peep Aaviksoo said.
IPC Real Estate will continue with other real estate development and investment projects in Romania in the framework of other investment programs. Mainly smaller towns than Bucharest as well as tourist areas such as Timisoara, Brasov and Iasi have been targeted
The sum total of the investment program of the First IPC Romanian Issue was 4.55 million euros.
In the framework of the investment program launched two years ago IPC acquired two properties suitable for the development of apartment houses in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The sum total of the project was 420 apartments.
On May 9 the company signed a contract for the sale of the Celsius Apartment project of 120 apartments. IPC’s investment was 1.25 million euros and the sale price was established at 3.27 million euros.
IPC Investment Group is a company mainly based on Estonian capital. The total assets of the group as of the end of 2007 totalled 24.9 million euros with 3.5 million euros of equity according to non-audited figures.

Source: Estonian Review

Tallinn Expects 11% Budget Growth in 2009-2010

The Tallinn City Government sent to the City Council the budget strategy of the city which sees 11-percent growth in the next two years.
According to Tallinn’s budget strategy forecast the budgetary revenue of the city will total 7.67 billion kroons (EUR 490 mln), nearly 11 percent more compared with this year’s.
In 2010 the total budgetary revenue would be 8.53 billion kroons, also 11 percent more than in the previous year. Later, however, the growth in budgetary revenue is expected to fall to the level of 6-7 percent in the years 2011-12.
The forecast for the rise in revenues in the next two years is based on the precondition that the growth rate of the country remains in the range of 3-7 percent and the growth in average wages will be in the range of 7-12 percent.
The number of residents of the capital should remain stable at 400,000, nearly 30 percent of the total population of the country.
Tallinn also forecasts that from one billion kroons this year the subsidy from the state budget will grow to nearly 1.6 billion kroons by the year 2012.
Tallinn has estimated the revenue from the sale of property at 89 million kroons next year. Tallinn’s revenue from dividends should be 89 million kroons last year and starting from 2010 at least 100 kroons a year.

Source: Estonian Review

Study: Consumption of Illegal Alcohol Down Considerably

According to the Estonian Institute of Economic Research (EKI), three percent of consumers, the lowest figure of the past ten years, bought illegal alcohol in Estonia last year.
According to EKI’s assessment illegal alcohol accounted for 8-12 percent of the domestic vodka market and caused a loss of tax revenue of about 97 million kroons (EUR 6.2 mln).
EKI forecasts that in the second half of this year cross border trade of alcohol products could increase, which could even lead to growth in the illegal market.
Illegal cigarettes, however, were bought by slightly more than one third, 34 percent, of smokers; of these smokers who ordered cigarettes from abroad made up ten percent.
Evelin Ahermaa, head of the EKI economic studies sector, said that it is legally permitted to bring cigarettes across the border but the goods must be for personal consumption alone and any further trade is illegal.
The share of illegal cigarettes of the whole cigarette market is 20-25 percent according to EKI. Because of the consumption of illegal cigarettes, the state budget failed to receive nearly 400 million kroons tax revenue last year.
In EKI’s opinion the Baltic countries could unify their tax policy more this year, because otherwise there would be a lot of transport of goods from one country to another.

Source: Estonian Review

Nearly EUR 60 Million of Defence Appropriation Not Spent in 2007

The Estonian Defence Ministry left 941 million kroons (EUR 60 mln) of national defence appropriation unused last year while the defence minister wants more money for military defence, the daily Postimees reports.
In 2007 the ministry’s expenditures were planned at 4.06 billion kroons which after a supplementary budget and changes in external resources finally grew to 4.25 billion kroons. According to the Finance Ministry data, of this sum 3.36 billion kroons was used up.
“Thus, 940.9 million kroons was carried over into this year. At the same time it has to be taken into account that a large part of the funds set apart under the supplementary budget was carried over in full,” a spokeswoman for the Finance Ministry observed.
In her words, the amount of money transferred into the 2008 budget cannot automatically be taken for the measure of the efficiency of the use of funds by the Defence Ministry.
Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo from the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union argues that the freezing of defence spending would result in the corresponding appropriations dropping below 1 percent of gross domestic product. In his words, this also would mean Estonia’s failure to keep the commitment to NATO confirmed by one prime minister after another and their Cabinets’ defence and foreign ministers.
The current budget strategy calls for spending 1.9 percent of GDP on defence in 2009 and this is the target the Defence Ministry is aiming at, Aaviksoo said.
The funds not used last year and external resources included, the Defence Ministry can count on a budget of roughly 5.217 billion kroons this year.

Source: Estonian Review

Energy costs 15% more than last year

According to Statistics Estonia, in April 2008 the percentage change in the producer price index was 0.8% compared to March 2008 and 7.2% compared to April 2007.

In April compared to March 2008 the producer price index was mainly influenced by the increase in prices in energy supply, mining, in the manufacture of leather and leather products and in the manufacture of rubber and plastic products. Compared to April 2007 the producer price index was mainly influenced by the increase in prices in energy supply, mining and in the manufacture of food and beverages.Change in the producer price index by economic activity, April 2008

Economic activity	March 2008 – April 2008, %	April 2007 – April 2008, %
TOTAL	0.8	7.2
Energy supply	2.9	14.5
Mining	7.5	13.3
Manufacturing	0.4	6.4

In April 2008 the percentage change in the export price index was 0.4% compared to March 2008 and 5.2% compared to April 2007.

In April compared to March the export price index was mainly influenced by the increase in prices in the manufacture of chemical products, rubber and plastic products and metal products.

In April 2008 the percentage change in the import price index was 0.7% compared to March 2008 and 5.5% compared to April 2007.

In April compared to March the import price index was mainly influenced by the increase in prices in the manufacture of mineral fuels, metal products and in the production of agricultural products and food products.

Source: Statistics Estonia