The following is a list of those ten stories that you've read the most during 2008. Let's see, if you can still remember them.
1. Whether I should buy real estate in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine or Poland?
2. Only sex can save Estonian economy
3. Do you hate Russia?
4. Anttila: Estonians not that capable as they think
5. What awaits IT-sector in the forseeable future?
6. Scottish football fans appeal to Lithuanian owner of Edinburgh's Hearts
7. Finnish journalist: only Russians can save Estonian economy
8. What happened to the Estonian economy?
9. Why Estonia is in recession?
10. Foreign businessmen: crisis in Estonia is at the initial stage
And finally: What do you remember the most from 2008?
Estonian ministry of environmental affairs has approved draft agreement to sell spare emission allowances to Spain for 688 million kroons and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. for an unspecified price, according to a statement on the ministry’s website, reported Bloomberg.
Retail sales volume decreased 7% at constant prices in June year on year. According to Statistics Estonia, retail sales have been declining during the whole year in annual terms: in January retail sales decreased 12%, in February 11%, in March and April 9% and in May 5% compared to the respective months a year ago.
Baltic Taxi, a taxi company in which Bertold Flick, president of airBaltic, owns 51%, has announced its intention to expand into Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine.COMMENTS (10)
According to Eurostat, Estonia posted EU's second-largest annual fall in the number of airline passengers in 2009. The worst decline was posted in Lithuania. COMMENTS (3)
According to a new Big Mac index published by The Economist this week, the Estonian kroon is 30% undervalued against the US dollar. A year earlier the kroon was 20% undervalued.COMMENTS (14)
In the first six months, there were 19,002 real estate transactions in Estonia worth 9.83 billion kroons. A year earlier, the figures were 18,914 and 11 billion kroons.
In May exports of goods from Estonia amounted to 11.3 billion kroons and were 38% higher than a year earlier. Imports were up 47% to 12.5 billion kroons. Trade deficit stood at 1.2 billion kroons and was four times more than in May 2009.COMMENTS (14)
Finnish government-controlled carrier Finnair tried to buy Finncomm in June in an effort to prevent the smaller carrier from being bought by Latvian rival airBaltic, Finnish business daily Kauppalehti reported on Wednesday.COMMENTS (10)
Enterprise Investors, Poland’s largest private equity fund, will buy a 36 percent stake in Webmedia Group to fund an expansion abroad by Estonia’s largest computer software company.COMMENTS (5)
Fitch Ratings on Monday raised Estonia’s credit grade as Estonia prepares to become the third east European member of the euro region in January after outperforming the bloc’s existing members on fiscal criteria, writes Bloomberg.COMMENTS (3)
Tallink Grupp's new pricing system on its Tallinn-Helsinki line is confusing many passengers.COMMENTS (11)
Selver chain of grocery stores plans to lay off more than 100 people by this autumn, according to an unnamed employee.COMMENTS (35)
Estonian economy may grow 3.6% on average next year through 2020 thanks to a favorable business environment, the Economist Intelligence Unit said.COMMENTS (23)
Estonia recorded te highest annual increase in industrial production in May 2010(+17.2%), followed by Luxembourg (+13.5%), Sweden (+13.4%), Latvia (+13.2%) and Germany (+13.1%), reported Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.COMMENTS (6)
Estonia will switch to the euro at the current target exchange rate when it enters the monetary union next year, European finance ministers decided.COMMENTS (59)
Estonian daughters of large Scandinavian parent banks earned about two billion kroons in service fees alone last year. Swedbank earned over 900 million kroons in service fees or 736 kroons per customer. SEB earned over 800 million, mainly in card and transaction fees, writes Äripäev.COMMENTS (15)
Andrus Aljas, CEO of Estonian Air, confirmed to ERR today that the contract which Estonian Air had signed for the delivery of three Bombardier aircraft had been terminated before due date.COMMENTS (11)
Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said the inflation rate in July will be much lower than the June reading, in comments delivered at a press conference in Tallinn today. COMMENTS (17)
Latvian national airline airBaltic said this week it plans to add new destinations in the next winter season and offer additional flights. For the winter, the airline plans to add fourteen new destinations and increase flight frequencies on more than twenty routes.COMMENTS (2)
Retail sales in May were still below last year's level, but the gap at 5% was lower that in January (-12%), February (-11%), March (-9%) and April (-9%). COMMENTS (3)
Below is the article on how rich Estonians who invested in the real estate of the Black Sea seaside resort in Varna, Bulgaria, fell victim to a scam of the local Chechen criminal gang and lost millions. COMMENTS (1)
Although Norma, the Estonian seatbelt maker that belongs to Autoliv, is officially delisted from Tallinn Stock Exchange from today, more than 500 small shareholders refused to accept the takeover price offered by Autoliv, writes Aripaev.
Riho Unt, board chairman of SEB and head of the Estonian Banking Association, believes that it will be at least ten years before real estate prices will peak.COMMENTS (11)