upreme Soviet in May 1990 - three
equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black, and white

Economy
-------

Economic overview: Estonia continues to experience strong economic
growth after its economy bottomed out in 1993. Bolstered by a
widespread national desire to reintegrate into Western Europe,
Estonia has adhered to disciplined fiscal and financial policies and
has led the FSU countries in pursuing economic reform. Monthly
inflation has been held to under 5% since the beginning of 1992,
with monthly inflation in 1995 at 2%. Following four years of
decline, Estonia's GDP grew 5% in 1994 and 6% in 1995 - among the
highest rates in Europe, according to estimates of the IMF and
Estonia's own Economic Ministry. Despite these positive economic
indicators, unemployment - 8% in 1994 - is on the rise, and wages -
especially for teachers and law enforcement personnel - have not
kept pace with inflation. Small- and medium-scale privatization is
essentially complete, and large-scale privatization is progressing,
but slowly. Estonia has successfully reoriented it trade toward the
West, two-thirds of exports now going to Western markets. Estonia's
free trade policies were the cornerstone of its negotiations with
the European Union, and led to the signing of an association
agreement in June 1995. Estonia was the only Baltic state not to
have a transition period imposed by the EU prior to its
implementation of a free trade agreement.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $12.3 billion (1995 estimate as
extrapolated from World Bank estimate for 1994)

GDP real growth rate: 6% (1995 est.)

GDP per capita: $7,600 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 10%
industry: 37%
services: 53% (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 29% (1995 est.)

Labor force: 750,000 (1992)
by occupation: industry and construction 42%, agriculture and
forestry 20%, other 38% (1990)

Unemployment rate: 8% (1994 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $620 million
expenditures: $582 million, including capital expenditures of $NA
(January-October 1995)

Industries: oil shale, shipbuilding, phosphates, electric motors,
excavators, cement, furniture, clothing, textiles, paper, shoes,
apparel

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity:
capacity: 3,420,000 kW
production: 11.3 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 6,528 kWh (1993)

Agriculture: potatoes, fru