Covid-19, Crisis, Estonia, Financial Services, Markets and Companies

"While the economic decline caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been moderate in comparison with other countries, employment has decreased more than in Estonia only in Spain, Hungary and Ireland, speaking of the countries of the European Union," the head of the Foresight Center, Tea Danilov, said.

She said that where labor-intensive branches of the service sector have suffered most, the manufacturing industry has kept the economy going.

"In the coming few years it is namely the more virus-proof sectors of the economy that will develop better, such as, for instance, information technology and the financial sector, but also wood and electronics industry," Danilov said. 

In the sectors that are more vulnerable than average, 14% of the value-added is created and they employ 21.2% of all employees in Estonia.

"In all sectors of the economy taken together, the turnover of companies from March to October was smaller by 7.8% or 3.5 billion euros compared with last year," Uku Varblane, expert at the Foresight Center, said. "The impacts of the first wave of the virus in Estonia have been very different by economic sector," he added. 

The report to be presented at an event starting at 11 a.m. on Tuesday explores the impacts of the virus crisis on 17 fields of the economy as well as potential scenarios for the next decade.

The report will be presented by Danilov and Varblane, and comments will be offered by Mait Palts, director general of the Estonian Camber of Commerce and Industry. 

The aim of the report is to offer a quick assessment of the developments taking place during the virus crisis and upcoming changes. The report foremost focuses on the economic impacts and outlooks for the future, including how the structure of the Estonian economy and the country's competition position vis-a-vis other countries may change. 

The Foresight Center is a think tank at the Estonian parliament; its tasks include analyzing long-term developments in the society, identifying new trends and development avenues, and drafting development scenarios.