Analytics, Business, Corruption, Estonia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Shadow economy

Even 40% of respondents believe that corruption is widespread in Estonia. Last year this opinion was expressed by 31% of the polled. Around a fourth of the executives think that anti-corruption measures harm their competitiveness on the Estonian market, EY said.

"The perception of corruption and fraud risks is influenced by events discovered and made public by supervision institutions, on the one hand, and on the other, company managers too pay every year more and more attention to the lawfulness and transparency of business activities and good business practices," fraud investigator Marilin Pikaro from Ernst & Young Baltic said.

In conditions of tight competition, pressure to engage in unlawful behavior remains current in Estonia, she observed. "22% of the managers who responded to the survey are convinced that if they do not offer a bribe it will be done by their competitor who will secure the deal. This indicator has not changed much compared to 2015," Pikaro said.

Some 36% of respondents have encountered a case of fraud. At the same time, 17% of respondents voiced the opinion that corruption exists only in the public sector but does not occur in the private sector.

Ernst & Young conducted the web-based survey in March and April 2016.