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“People’s consumption habits change, technology evolves, and more and more data become available. Statistics Estonia must keep up with these developments, and we must continuously update our methodologies,” explained Urmet Lee, the Director General of Statistics Estonia. The methodological changes introduced in January concern food products and electricity. “Good cooperation with electricity providers and retail chains now allows us to calculate the consumer price index in Estonia more accurately than ever before. It means that a quarter of the data for the consumer basket are now obtained

Jane Leppmets, analyst at Statistics Estonia, noted that, compared with 2024, exports of services to European Union countries increased by 4% in the first quarter of this year, while imports from these countries grew by 8%. Exports of services to non-EU countries rose by 6% and imports from these countries increased by 18%. “The latter was mainly due to higher imports of services from Cyprus, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the first quarter, the largest import items were other business services from Cyprus, transport services from the United Kingdom, and telecommunications

Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia, explained that the gender pay gap was over 20% in five economic activities: financial and insurance activities (25.5%), information and communication (24.4%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (23.5%), human health and social work activities (20.7%), and manufacturing (20.2%). Compared with 2023, the gender pay gap in other service activities changed the most, from −18.4% in 2023 to 14.8% in 2024. Last year, the gender pay gap was negative only in one activity – transportation and storage (−7.1%). “It means that

Tiina Pärson, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that internet use is a common practice among younger and middle-aged people (16–54-year-olds), with almost 100% of them using the internet. Internet use has increased significantly among the elderly. For example, compared with last year, internet use has risen by five percentage points in the 55–64 age group and by six percentage points among 65–74-year-olds. Compared with 2020, the increase has been even greater, at 11 percentage points among people aged 55–64 and 20 percentage points among people aged 65–74. “One key factor is the

Eveli Šokman, team lead of producer price statistics at Statistics Estonia, said that, compared with February 2024, the producer price index was most affected by price increases in electricity production, in the manufacture of wood and wood products, and the manufacture of food products. “Falling prices in the manufacture of fabricated metal products, paper and paper products, and furniture had the opposite effect on the index. Producer prices increased by 2.3% in manufacturing as a whole and by 2.9% in the manufacture of food products,” Šokman added. Compared with January, the producer price

Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia, noted that Statistics Estonia uses the data of the employment register of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board to estimate the number of occupied posts and labour turnover. Data on job vacancies, however, are collected by Statistics Estonia using a questionnaire. Vacant posts accounted for 1.7% of the total number of posts The total number of vacant and occupied posts in the second quarter was 595,760. The number of vacant posts was the highest in education (1,782) and in wholesale and retail trade (incl. repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles)

Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia, stated that the total number of vacant and occupied posts in the first quarter was a little over 594,000. “The number of vacant posts was the highest in education (1,274) and in public administration and defence (1,254). The number of occupied posts, however, was the greatest in manufacturing (97,736),” she said. The analyst noted that, in the first quarter of 2025, vacant posts accounted for 1.5% of the total number of posts. In the first quarter of 2024, vacant positions accounted for 1.6%. In the first quarter of this year, in addition to

Lauri Veski, the Consumer Price Statistics Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, explained that inflation – i.e. the year-on-year increase in the consumer price index – has shown gradual decline in recent months. “With the exception of November 2025, inflation has been in decline since September last year,” he noted. The rise in the consumer price index in February year on year was primarily influenced by the increases in the prices of food products (5.5%), health products and services (12%), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (7.9%) and housing (1.5%). Electricity prices remained high in

Lauri Veski, the Consumer Price Statistics Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that the last time that the year-on-year increase in the consumer price index was at a similar level was a year ago, in January 2025, when the consumer price index rose by 3.9%. “The rise in the consumer price index for January 2026 compared with December was primarily influenced by electricity, food and alcoholic beverages. The exchange prices of electricity soared in January, so that the electricity price index was up by 22.2% compared with December. Food prices were up by 2.3% in January, with 11.1% more

In the second quarter, the total production value of Estonian construction enterprises was 995 million euros, including 617 million euros’ worth of building construction and 378 million euros’ worth of civil engineering. Compared with the second quarter of last year, the volume of building construction fell by 1.2% and the volume of civil engineering works (roads, bridges, port facilities, pipelines, communication and electricity lines, sports fields, etc.) by 5%. Merike Sinisaar, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that construction volumes had briefly grown in the first quarter but