An artificial island called Talsinki

According to a finish architects vision an artificial island could be built whilst building the railway tunnel between Tallinn and Helsinki; this island would accommodate 20 000 residents, aripaev.ee writes.

Martti Kalliala, the young architect said that building materials would be readily at hand as during the construction of the sea tunnel almost 16 million cubic meters of granite rubble would be left over and this could be used in building the two square kilometer artificial island, Helsinki-Info reports.

According to the architects plans,the money for building the island would come, from selling the construction rights amongst other sources: a square meter of land would cost about 400 Euros (6200 kr), altogether the building would cost around 600 million Euros (9,4 billion kroons)

Talsinki, shaped as the letters TKI would be the perfect place for Estonian-Finnish businesses, that need work forces from both countries at the same time, to operate at. The architect plans indicate that the island would  have apartment buildings, summer cottages, pyramid-shaped office buildings, a school, central park, a swimming beach , a small port, a conference centre and a wind farm, built five meters above the sea level

The idea to build Talsinki was inspired by the artificial island in Dubai and the idea will be presented to the Helsinki City Planning Department Laituri’s exhibition space in the exhibition that is opened from April 17th  until May 15th and is called  “Helsinki- Eurooppalainen metropolis” which means Europe-like metropolis.

Source: BBN

A. Le Coq becomes biggest brewer in Estonia

According to a study by the market research company AC Nielsen, A.Le Coq has become the biggest brewer in Estonia, going clearly ahead of all the competing brewers.
The market share of A. Le Coq’s beers grew by 10% on year in December and January, achieving 41% market share in retail trade, A.Le Coq said.
The Saku Õlletehas brewery said recently that according to a study by AC Nielsen, Saku Õlletehas was the leader of the beer market last year, controlling 45.7% of the market. The market share of A.Le Coq was 38.1%. In addition to beer, A.Le Coq also produces waters, fruit juices and soft drinks.

Source: Estonian Review

Berlin, Amsterdam routes to be opened soon

Estonian Air is going to open an air route between Tallinn and Amsterdam on 7 June and a route between Tallinn and Berlin on the following day.
Return fights to Amsterdam will take place three times a week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, spokespeople for the airline said.
Flights to Berlin’s Tegel airport and back will take place twice weekly on Mondays and Fridays.
Fares on both routes start from 1 096 kroons (EUR 70) for a one-way ticket.

Source: Estonian Review

Estonia ranks 18th place in IT world

Estonia rose two places in the World Economic Forum’s Global IT Report, putting it in 18th place this year.
Similarly to last year, the report states that the top nations in the use of information and communication technology are Denmark and Sweden, followed by the United States, Singapore, and Switzerland.
Estonia’s northern neighbour Finland ranked in 6th place, while Russia ranks 74th. The other Baltic nations ranked behind Estonia, with Lithuania in 35th place and Latvia in 48th.
The last country on the list, in 134th place, is Chad.
The Global IT Report ranks nations according to their competitiveness and development in the digital realm.

Source: Estonian Review (vm.ee)

Skype world’s largest provider of international calls

Last year about 33 billion international calling minutes were made via Skype, or about 8% of all international calls.
The latest analysis by TeleGeography, a company that organises international telecommunications surveys, shows that Skype has become the largest provider of international calls.
A total of 417 billion minutes’ worth of international calls were made last year. Skype’s portion of this is 33 billion minutes, or about 8% of all international calls.
TeleGeography did not measure the profit earned by the various operators. Skype would certainly not rank first by that factor, even though it is the largest in terms of minutes used. Skype’s service SkypeOut, which requires a small fee, was used for 8 billion minutes of calls.
While the total amount of international calls grew in 2008 by about 12%, the number of international calls made using Skype increased by 41%.

Source: Estonian Review (vm.ee)

Decrease in retail sale accelerated

According to Statistics Estonia, in February 2009 compared to February of the previous year the retail sales of goods of retail trade enterprises decreased 18% at constant prices.

The decrease in retail sales of goods, which had begun in March 2008 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, remained within 1–10% till January of this year. But in February the retail sales decreased to the lowest level so far. The melting-down economy and the resulting decline in consumer confidence contributed to this trend. The confidence indicators reflected in the consumer survey organized by the Estonian Institute of Economic Research also showed a continuous falling trend in February.

In February, the retail sales of goods of retail trade enterprises were 4.1 billion kroons. Compared to February 2008, the retail sales of goods decreased in most economic activities. The decrease in retail sales was most influenced by the stores selling manufactured goods, where retail sales decreased 27% compared to the same month of the previous year. The greatest decrease was recorded in the retail sales of other specialized stores and non-specialized stores as well as stores selling household goods and appliances, hardware and building materials.

Retail sales in grocery stores decreased by one tenth compared to February of the previous year. Consumers are continuously hesitant about the future and have started to restrict their expenditure on food ever more due to that.

Compared to January, the retail sales of goods in retail trade enterprises decreased by 7% at constant prices. According to the seasonally and calendar-based adjustments of data, the retail sales decreased 2%.

In February the revenues from the sales of retail trade enterprises were 4.9 billion kroons, out of which retail sales of goods accounted for 85%. Compared to February of the previous year, the revenues from sales decreased 21% at current prices. Compared to the previous month, this indicator decreased 7%.

Retail sales volume index of retail trade enterprises and its trend,
January 2002 – February 2009 (corresponding month of previous year = 100)

Source: Statistics Estonia

The government budget in deficit

According to preliminary data of Statistics Estonia, the Estonian general government sector deficit was 3% and the gross debt level was 4.8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008. The general government budget’s deficit remained within the limits set out in the Maastricht Treaty.

In 2008, the total expenditures of the general government sector budget exceeded the revenues by 7.4 billion kroons. The central government sector deficit was 2.4% of GDP, and the consolidated budgets of the local governments sector that had reached surplus for a moment in 2006, but fallen back in deficit again in 2007, had the deficit of 0.8% of GDP. Only the social security funds sector maintained a positive budget position — the revenues exceeded the expenditures by 0.5 billion kroons.

The general government gross debt level, having been in a continuous declining trend since 2002, underwent a steep increase in 2008 compared to recent years, amounting to 12 billion kroons. Last year, the central government’s debt level increased by 1.3 billion kroons compared to 2007, but the borrowing of the local governments sector increased almost twice more than that — by 2.2 billion kroons. In 2008 like a year before, the local governments’ total borrowing accounted for 68% of the general government’s gross debt.

General Government’s consolidated surplus or deficit and debt level, 2004–2008

Statistics Estonia would like to point out that the today released data for 2008 on the general government debt and budget’s deficit as well as the data for the general government debt and budget’s deficit as a percentage of GDP are preliminary. Revised and based on the entirely accrual accounting methods data for 2008 will be published by Statistics Estonia on 30 September. The incorporated change in the accounting method is based on the rules of the European System of Accounts (ESA95) and has been agreed with Eurostat.

Statistics Estonia will also publish the revised GDP aggregates for 2008 on 8 September. This year, Statistics Estonia will conduct, in addition to the regular revision of the national accounts data, the revision of the calculations of actual and imputed rents.

During 4–5 June, Statistics Estonia will be visited by Eurostat’s Mission on Excessive Deficit Procedure whose task is to assess the methodological conformity of the Member States’ accountancy. Circumstances of the change to the accrual accounting method will be one of the matters under discussion. The Mission visits Member States regularly in every one and a half years; the last visit to Estonia was in 2007.

Source: Statistics Estonia

Prices are falling

According to Statistics Estonia, the percentage change of the consumer price index in March 2009 compared to February was -0.5% and compared to March 2008 was 2.0%.

The change of the consumer price index compared to the same month of the previous year was below 2% last in April 2004, when it was 1.3%.

In March 2009 compared to March of the previous year, the prices of goods had changed by -0.3%, of which the prices of food products had increased by 5.0% and the prices of manufactured goods had decreased by -4.7%. The prices of services had increased by 6.5%. Regulated prices of goods and services changed by 6.8% and non-regulated prices by 0.6%.

Compared to March 2008, the consumer price index was mainly influenced by alcoholic beverages and tobacco (the price increase together 19.9%), by the price decrease of motor fuel (23.3%) and by the price increase of heat energy (19.1%).

In March compared to the previous month, the consumer price index was mainly influenced by the price decrease of heat energy by 7%. The decrease of rental prices, special sales of cars and the decrease in the prices of milk and dairy products had also a remarkable impact on the consumer price index.

Change of the consumer price index by commodity groups, March 2009

Commodity group	March 2008 – March 2009, %	February 2009 – March 2009, %
TOTAL	2.0	-0.5
Food and non-alcoholic beverages	0.1	-0.3
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco	19.9	-0.4
Clothing and footwear	0.4	1.1
Housing	7.2	-2.9
Household goods	3.3	-0.5
Health	5.7	-0.1
Transport	-10.2	-0.3
Communications	-0.8	0.0
Recreation and culture	1.0	0.4
Education	6.3	0.0
Hotels, cafés and restaurants	3.6	-0.2
Miscellaneous goods and services	7.3	-0.1

Source: Statistics Estonia