Estonia Q4 GDP falls 9.4 pct y/y

Estonia, hoping to join the euro zone in 2011, reported a smaller-than-expected 9.4 percent drop in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter and the first quarterly rise in output in two years, data showed on Thursday.

The data showed that the country's recession-hit economy has bottomed out, helping lift the gloom on the Baltic region, the worst affected in the European Union by the global crisis.

The statistics office said in a statement that the year-on-year contraction came after a rise in GDP of 2.6 percent during the final quarter of 2009, seasonally and working-day adjusted. The last quarter-on-quarter rise was in the fourth quarter of 2007, before the recession struck.

The median forecast in a Reuters survey had been for an economic contraction of 12.6 percent year-on-year after a 15.6 percent drop in the third quarter.

"The decrease of value added decelerated in the majority of economic activities. By flash estimates, the decrease in the value added in the wholesale and retail trade accelerated, caused by continually weak domestic demand," the statistics office said.

The drop in the value added of the industrial sector braked to 17 percent from 28 percent in the third quarter.

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