Budget, Estonia, Financial Services, GDP, Legislation

Finance Minister Sven Sester said after the cabinet meeting that the biggest costs of the state budget are related to pensions and social insurance. Pensions form 2 billion euros of the budget, social insurance costs nearly one billion.

Other major expenditures include costs of national defence. According to the Minister of Finance, these even make up more than 2% of GDP.

The number of central government employees will decrease by 750 people; it brings the state 13 million euro in savings, which brings wage increases in four areas.

"The government has stated very clearly that the most attention will be focused on internal security, education, social workers, cultural workers. And we see that in these sectors, the wage increase will be 4% in monetary volume next year," said Sven Sester.

The cabinet decided that farmers will be further supported. Farmers are allocated 7.6 million top-up or transfer support, of which farmers will receive 3 million this year and next year 4.6 million euros.

The state's real estate portfolio in the coming year forms 75 million euros, and the money goes mainly to objects that are already in the design or construction phase.