Postimees writes that contrary to the promises of PM Andrus Ansip, Estonia’s income gap with wealthy countries is not shrinking, but growing.
“In purchasing power, Estonian GDP per capital was about 55% of Finland’s and 52% of Sweden’s level back in 2009. In 2012, the figures are 60% and 53%,” says analyst Maris Lauri, adding that one has to take into account the deep economic crisis that affected Estonia much more than Scandinavian countries.
Adjusting for new census results, accurate figures for 2012 should be 62% of Finland’s level and 55% of Sweden’s level, she adds.
According to Lauri, also the recent news that Estonia was falling behind in GDP per capita from Latvia and Lithuania are incorrect because Latvia and Lithuania had already adjusted their GDP for new census figure, but Estonia had not.
“I believe that Estonia should still have higher GDP per capita than Latvia and Lithuania also at present,” she added.
In 2012, GDP per person was 9,400 euros for Estonia, 23,200 euros for the EU average, 31,100 euros for Finland and 35,500 euros for Sweden.
Toomas Hõbemägi
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