In 2018, rapid economic growth continued in Estonia

2018

In 2018, the GDP at current prices was 26 billion euros.

Main contributors to a growth covering the majority of economic activities were construction, manufacturing, professional, scientific and technical activities. A significant contribution to growth came also from transportation and storage, information and communication. All the above-mentioned economic activities showed good results in 2018. The only significant negative impacts on the economic growth were exerted by agriculture, forestry and fishing. This was largely due to their poor performance in the second half of the year.

The value added in construction increased 18.6% in 2018. Last time the growth in construction was that fast was in 2011 when the economy just began to recover from the crisis. Other activities with fast value added growth were professional, scientific and technical activities (13.3%), information and communication (10.6%), transportation and storage (9.2%) and mining and quarrying (8.7%). The growth of value added in manufacturing, which contributes the largest share in the GDP, accelerated to 5.3% in 2018. The value added in trade increased only 0.9%.

Net taxes on products did not increase in 2017, while in 2018 their growth recovered. The net taxes on products at current prices increased by 6.9% and by 2.2% adjusted for inflation.

In 2018, the exports of goods and services increased 4.3%, mainly due to the growth of the services exports. Although the growth was slightly lower than in 2017, the export of services increased by 5.6%. This was mostly due to the exports of computer and transportation services. The export of goods increased 3.6%. Main contributors to that growth were the exports of computers, electronic and optical equipment, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers. Imports of goods and services increased 6.1%, which was the fastest growth in the last 6 years. This was mostly influenced by the imports of machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified, basic and pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations. The imports of services increased 11.6%, thanks to the imports of travel and transportation services. Net exports reached 904 million euros in 2018, which is 3.5% of the GDP.

Domestic demand also produced the best results in the last 6 years, growing 5.3%. This was mostly due to final consumption of households, which increased 4.6% in 2018. Last time the household consumption grew that fast was at the peak of the previous boom in 2007. Investments that declined in the first half of the year started to grow again in the second half. The investments increased 3.3% in 2018, which is a very good result compared to previous years. Biggest contributions to growth came from investments into buildings and structures by nonfinancial enterprises and from investments into dwellings by households. The investments by nonfinancial enterprises and government sector into transport equipment declined. The final consumption expenditure of the government sector grew by 0.3 in 2018.

In 2018, the growth of the GDP once again surpassed the growth of the number of persons employed. As a result, the productivity per person employed grew by 2.6%. The number of hours worked decreased in 2018, causing a productivity growth of 5.3% per hour worked. As the pressure on wages continued in 2018, the unit labour cost also increased rapidly and at 6% surpassed the growth of productivity per hour worked.

4th quarter of 2018

In the 4th quarter of 2018, the Estonian GDP at current prices was 6.8 billion euros.

In the 4th quarter of 2018, the Estonian economy grew by 4.2% compared to the 4th quarter of 2017. The seasonally and working-day adjusted GDP grew by 2.2% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter and by 4.3% compared to the 4th quarter of 2017.

The main contributors to the economic growth were construction, transportation and storage and professional, scientific and technical activities. In addition, manufacturing and information and communication also had a significant positive impact. The main hindrances to the economic growth were agriculture, forestry and fishing.

Domestic demand grew 6.0% in the 4th quarter. The growth in investments increased significantly in the last quarter, 17.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. Investments increased in all sectors. The main contributors to the growth were the investments in buildings and structures and machinery and equipment by nonfinancial enterprises. Investments in dwellings by households and investments in machinery and fixed assets for defence purposes by the government sector also increased notably. The final consumption of households grew by 5.1%.

The exports of goods and services grew 4.9% compared to the same period of the previous year. The main contributors to the growth were the exports of computers, electronic and optical equipment. The same goods as well as metal products and machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified contributed to the growth of the imports of goods and services, which grew 6.1%. The share of net exports in the GDP was 3.2%.

Productivity per person employed grew 3.3% in the 4th quarter, due to an increase of 1% in the number of persons employed. Productivity per hour worked grew 6.3% because of the decreased number of hours worked. The unit labour cost increased at the same pace.

For the statistical activity “National accounts”, the main representative of public interest is the Ministry of Finance, commissioned by whom Statistics Estonia performs this statistical activity.

In 2019, Statistics Estonia will publish revised national accounts time series for the period 1995-2018. More information on the benchmark revision suggested by the revision policy of the European Commission can be found on the Statistics Estonia webpage.