The economy continued to grow slightly in Q3

Robert Müürsepp, team lead of national accounts at Statistics Estonia, said that although the economy has shown slight growth for two consecutive quarters, the contribution of most sectors has remained insignificant. “Manufacturing was the biggest positive contributor to GDP in the third quarter, with its value added growing by 7.9%. The last time this sector performed so well was in the fourth quarter of 2021. However, it must be noted that production figures were still modest,” noted Müürsepp.

In addition to manufacturing, the largest positive contributors to the economy were the energy sector (21.5%) and real estate activities (4.4%). The negative impact came primarily from wholesale and retail trade, where value added fell by 6.9%. Transportation and storage (-6.9%) and human health and social work activities (-4.5%) hampered economic growth as well.

Value added and tax revenues up, private consumption down

In the third quarter, value added grew by 0.5%. Value added is the total output of enterprises after taking away the value of inputs used for production. Value added remained at the same level as in the third quarter of last year in the non-financial corporations sector and decreased by 0.2% in the financial sector. The value added of the non-profit institutions sector fell by 0.9%. In the government sector, value added grew at its fastest rate in the last six quarters – by 3.3%.

Despite the tax rate increase, receipts from value added tax continued to rise. In the third quarter, net taxes on production were up by 3.4%. Both value added and net taxes on production accounted for about half of GDP growth.

In the third quarter, private consumption declined by 0.6%. This was mainly due to a decline in spending on alcoholic beverages and tobacco, food and accommodation services, and transport. People’s expenditures on financial and insurance services, education, and furnishings showed the strongest growth.

The final consumption expenditure of the government sector continued to increase, rising by 3.4% in the third quarter. This is the fastest growth since the second quarter of 2024.

Investments declined slightly, foreign trade growth accelerated

Müürsepp stated that investments in the third quarter remained close to the level of the same quarter last year, decreasing by only 0.7%. “The drop in investments was mainly driven by a decrease in enterprises' investments in machinery and equipment (-27.3%), which was in line with modest production output. The biggest positive contributions came from an increase of households’ investments in dwellings (12.1%), which was also reflected in the rise of private consumer spending on furnishings. The growth of general government investments in other buildings and structures (8.8%) also had a positive impact,” he added.

While foreign trade growth slowed in the second quarter, it picked up again in the third. Exports were up by 5.7% and imports by 5.6%. Net exports were also positive for the second quarter in a row. Estonia’s exports of goods and services exceeded imports by €147 million.

Exports of goods were up by 3.9% and imports by 3.6%. The growth was primarily due to increased trade in metal products, gold for non-monetary purposes, crude oil, and natural gas. The greatest decline was seen in imports of other transport equipment. Exports of services were up by 8.1%, mainly driven by sales of computer and processing services and other business services. Other business services also contributed to the 9.8% growth in imports of services, as did road transport, construction, and storage services.

The seasonally and working-day adjusted GDP increased by 0.4% compared with the second quarter of 2025 and by 0.9% compared with the third quarter of 2024.

National accounts data show how the Estonian economy is doing. The growth or decline of the economy is mainly measured by GDP and gross national income. The higher these indicators, the better Estonia and the people living here are doing.

Statistics Estonia performs the statistical activity “National accounts” for the Ministry of Finance in order to determine how the Estonian economy is doing.

Data as at 1 December are published. The indicator values may change if there are any revisions made in the data sources after this date.

More detailed data have been published in the statistical database. See also the national accounts section on our website. 

When using Statistics Estonia’s data and graphs, please indicate the source.
 

For further information:

Susann Kivi
Media Relations Manager
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 5696 6484
press [at] stat.ee (press[at]stat[dot]ee)

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