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"Lots of Finnish producers seek cooperation partners here now as things are more transparent for them," says Ermo Saks, owner of an audiovisual production company in the capital of Tallinn, where costs are still 48% lower than in Finland, informs LETA.

"For a small and poor state on the periphery with Russia as its neighbor, being a member of the European core is still very valuable, even if the euro zone is in a time of great difficulty," said Andres Kasekamp, a political science professor at Tartu University.

Before joining the euro zone, Estonia achieved a level of fiscal probity that Greece could only dream of. Estonia's economy shrank by almost a fifth in 2008 and 2009, after its property bubble burst and the global financial crisis sucked all credit out of the economy. In response the government cut public sector wages ten%, raised taxes, took bigger-than-planned dividends from state-owned companies, and froze pension contributions to meet budget deficit requirements for euro entry.

"The most important thing was that we ended all the speculation about a possible devaluation" of the kroon, says Priit Perens, the chief executive officer of Swedbank AS, Estonia's biggest lender and a part of Stockholm-based Swedbank (SWEDA:SS). Fears that all the Baltic countries would eventually devalue had hampered investor confidence for a long time. Devaluation would have been ruinous, since Estonia’s banks had started lending in euros before the country switched to the common currency. Paying off euro-denominated loans in devalued kroon would have imposed a crushing burden on businesses and consumers.

56% of Estonia’s 1.3 million inhabitants still back the adoption of the single currency, while 42% regret the move, according to a government-commissioned poll in October.

Opponents of the switch resent the pain they went through to qualify for the euro.

Says Hannes Valja, 30, a printer: "I don't see what the point was of adopting the euro. The associated cost was too high considering what we got in exchange."

That resentment might flare up in the next two months, when the Estonian Parliament discusses the use of funds raised by the European Financial Stability Facility to bail out Greece (the fund needs permission from its backers to bail out a specific country). All euro member states are expected to chip in to the EFSF. Estonia has already guaranteed two billion euros in EFSF loans – a hefty sum for a government whose 2011 budget was only six billion euros.

As reported, unemployment has increased this week in Estonia. 49,979 people or 7.7% of the working age population registered as unemployed in Estonia.