エストニア経済ニュース
2013年4月19日～2013年5月14日のエストニア経済ニュース
●メルケル首相，経済危機に対するエストニアの対応を賞賛
Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on April 17. During his visit Ansip introduced how Estonia exited the economic crisis and linked country’s success to the adoption of euro in 2011. He also called up for German investments in Estonia and said Merkel is a “good leader for the EU as a whole”. In turn German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised Estonia’s small national debt and said she can "only admire" the country’s rigorous reform course. Both Ansip and Merkel called bilateral ties between Estonia and Germany as “excellent”. (Postimees, by Inga Höglund, page 10, April 18, 2013/ Eesti Päevaleht, page 2, April 19, 2013)
●３月工業生産：前年同月比＋７％
Industrial production grew. According to Statistics Estonia, in March 2013, the production of industrial enterprises increased by 7 per cent compared to March 2012. The growth in the production was most of all influenced by the manufacturing of electronic products and electricity.(Äripäev, page 6, May 2, 2013)
●３月小売り売上高：前年同月比＋７％
Growth in retail sales accelerated in March. According to Statistics Estonia, in March 2013 compared to March 2012, the retail sales of goods of retail trade enterprises increased 7 per cent at constant prices. In January it was 4 per cent and in February 2 per cent compared to the same month in 2012.(Äripäev, page 7, May 2, 2013)
●メディア自由度ランキング：エストニア１３位
Estonian position improved in regards to media freedom. Estonia rose in this year's Freedom House press freedom index, moving from the 22-24 grouping to sharing 13th to 18th place with Ireland, Monaco, New Zealand, Palau and San Marino. The first countries in the ranking are Norway and Sweden.(Postimees, page 6, May 3, 2013)
●エストニア人は企業家精神旺盛
Estonians have the highest entrepreneurship spirit in the Baltics. SEB bank’s survey showed that Estonia has more company founders than the other two Baltic countries. Also, while in Estonia 45 per cent of people thought that starting a business was easy, in Latvia the relevant figure was 29 and Lithuania 30 per cent.(Äripäev, page 3, May 3, 2013)
●ダンスケ・バンク，貸し出し増加へ
Danske Bank Estonia will increase its loan portfolio by 50 per cent in next three years. At the end of I quarter its loan portfolio was € 1.14 billion. Bank representative believes it will not launch a loan boom.(Äripäev, by Kadri Põlendik and Laura Mallene, pages 8-9, May 3, 2013)
●スウェーデン投資企業，Starman社（ケーブルテレビ）買収
Swedish investment company East Capital Explorer acquired a majority stake in Starman. It acquired a majority stake in the leading cable television, broadband internet and voice cable services provider in Estonia and invests about € 24 million to acquire 51 per cent of Starman. The remaining stake of 49 per cent will be held by Starman's founders, Peeter Kern and Indrek Kuivallik. (Postimees, by Kalev Aasmäe and Kaja Koovit, pages 8-9, May 4, 2013)
●４月消費者物価指数：前年同月比＋３．１％
Statistics Estonia: in April the change of the consumer price index was 3.1 per cent compared to April 2012. Goods were 2.1 per cent and services 4.9 per cent more expensive compared to April of 2012. The index was mainly influenced by housing expenditures, which gave over a half of the total increase, of which in turn two thirds gave 28 per cent more expensive electricity. (Postimees, by Kaja Koovit, page 9, May 9, 2013)
●ＩＴ団体，ＩＴ労働者倍増を目標
IT Association wishes to double workers in the IT sector by 2020, i.e. to have up to 34,000 IT-workers. IT companies are currently forced to buy over workers from competing firms as they lack skilled labour force. For instance, yesterday such action was done in front of Skype, where start-up company TransferWise called Skype workers up to work for them instead.(Eesti Päevaleht, by Urmas Jaagant, page 4, May 9, 2013)
●エストニア，魅力的な投資先ランキングで１２位
Estonia ranks 12th of 102 countries in a new index of attractiveness for investment. This is according to the Baseline Profitability Index, which ranks countries by their overall attractiveness as targets for a generic foreign investment. In addition to the overall rank, the countries are ranked by the three main components of the index - asset growth, preservation of value and repatriation of capital. The time horizon envisioned for investments is five years. Hong Kong is the first in this index. (Foreign Policy, by Daniel Altman, URL: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/06/investing_overseas_baseline_profitability_index?page=full#.UYkFiCwdUyY.wordpress )
●第１四半期宿泊数：前年同期比＋５％
Number of tourists went up in the first quarter of 2013. According to Statistics Estonia, over half a million foreign and domestic tourists stayed in accommodation establishments, i.e. 5 per cent more than in I quarter of 2012. 303,000 foreign tourists used the services of accommodation establishments and three quarters of foreign tourists arrived from the neighbouring countries Finland, Russia and Latvia.(Postimees, page 9, May 11, 2013)
●米投資家，エストニアのスタートアップに投資
US risk investor invests in TransferWise. Venture capital firm Valar Ventures placed 6 million US dollars into Estonian currency transfer start-up TransferWise. This is the fund's head Peter Thiel's first European investment. Heads of TransferWise Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus said that Thiel's experiences with Facebook and PayPal are invaluable and investment will help them expand.
(Eesti Päevaleht, by Ann-Marii Nergi, page 8, May 14, 2013)