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In September, the confidence indicator was still the highest in retail trade (+21.1, up from +15.7 in August). Compared with August, there was a significant deterioration in enterprises’ assessment of their sales in the last three months, although enterprises were more optimistic about expected sales in the next three months. There was also a slight improvement in assessments of the volume of stock. In the services sector, the confidence indicator was +1.2 in September (+7.4 in August), and enterprises had a more negative view of expected demand in the next three months. Confidence also

Tea Vassiljeva, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the decline in unemployment is a sign that the economy is improving. “However, there are no grounds for optimism yet, as there has been no rise in employment and the share of economically inactive people among the working-age population is substantial,” added Vassiljeva. In the second quarter, the number of employed persons was 691,600 – this is 5,700 fewer than a year earlier but 5,300 more than in the first quarter. The employment rate was 68.6%, which is slightly lower than last year and just 0.6 percentage points higher than

Robert Müürsepp, the National Accounts Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that the Estonian economy grew for the fifth quarter in a row. “In the second quarter, two thirds of the economic activities made a positive contribution to the GDP. Similarly to the first quarter, manufacturing was the biggest driver of economic growth as its value added grew by 6.5%. It was followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing where the increase in value added was 168% due to the exceptionally low reference base of last year. In construction, value added was up by 7.5%,” said Müürsepp. A considerable

Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that, in the first quarter, the labour market showed no signs of major changes in any direction. “There were 52,200 unemployed people in the first quarter, up by 5,100 from the fourth quarter of last year. This number is still significantly lower than in the first quarter of last year, when the number of unemployed people was very high,” noted Vassiljeva. The unemployment rate is the share of the unemployed in the labour force. The unemployment rate was 7.1% in the first quarter, which is 0.7 percentage points higher than in the last quarter

Lauri Veski, the Consumer Price Statistics Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that the year-on-year increase in prices has been very small in the last three months – the last time that prices rose so little was in spring 2021. “Although housing and transport costs have increased compared with August last year, the index was driven down by the decrease in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages,” explained Veski. Housing costs were influenced by the rise in the prices of refuse collection (53.6%), wood fuel (10%) and electricity (3.7%) compared with August last year. Fuels were

In the first quarter, the total production value of Estonian construction enterprises was 799 million euros, including 603 million euros’ worth of building construction and 196 million euros’ worth of civil engineering. Compared with the first quarter of last year, the volume of building construction grew by 8% and the volume of civil engineering works (roads, bridges, port facilities, pipelines, communication and electricity lines, sports fields, etc.) fell by 7%. Merike Sinisaar, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the 5% increase in construction volume on the domestic market in

The total number of vacant and occupied posts in the fourth quarter was a little under 584,000. Vacancies represented 1.5% of all job posts. The number of vacant posts was the highest in education (1,435) and wholesale and retail trade (including repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles) (1,431). Krista Vaikmets, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the number of job vacancies declined by nearly 500 in the fourth quarter year on year. However, the rate of job vacancies – i.e. the share of vacancies in the total number of posts – remained at a similar level as in the fourth quarter

Eve Valdvee, the Agricultural and Technology Statistics Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that farm structure surveys offer a more complete picture of agriculture, including the trends in activities and the areas in need of funding. “Active participation in the survey is in the best interest of the agricultural sector – it ensures that the following data analysis and decision-making can be as accurate and relevant as possible,” emphasised Valdvee. Up to 4,000 enterprises and individuals will be surveyed. The sample list is based on register information (Agricultural Registers and