The freest media among Baltic countries - in Estonia

The media in Lithuania is becoming freer and freer, shows the research conducted by the international organization "Reporters Without Borders". Estonia was ranked the third and Latvia – 12th.

This year, Lithuania shares the 16th place with the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Portugal in the international rating. Last year, our country occupied the 23rd place and two years ago Lithuania was ranked 27th. According to the research, Lithuanian journalists have higher press freedom than Germans, Brits and French, yet they are less free than their colleagues in other Baltic states.

According to the annual rating, Iceland"s and Norwegian journalists have the highest freedom of press. Estonia was ranked the third. Latvia also did better than our country – it was ranked the 12th. A total of 173 countries were ranked.

All EU member states were listed among the top 50 positions, except Bulgaria (51st position) and Poland (56th position).

Russia remains in the end of the table. This year, it was given the 144th place. The situation is the worst in Eritrea, Northern Korea and Turkmenistan.

Source http://baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/

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Estonia c.bank gives bleak economic outlook

It said the Nordic banks which now dominate the Estonian banking sector should be able to withstand the slowdown, but that if Estonia's export markets ran out of steam completely then its own downturn would continue for longer. So far the economic correction has been more abrupt than expected primarily due to decreasing domestic demand," the bank said in its new forecasts, updated from April.

It stuck to its outlook for inflation to drop to near the Maastricht Treaty level for the adoption of the euro by the end of 2010, but it also saw the budget deficit rising and urged the government to be prepared for further budget steps. It forecast a gross domestic product (GDP) drop this year of 1.8 percent and of 2.1 percent in 2009. Growth would resume the year after at 3 percent, it said.

Its previous forecast was for GDP rises of 2 percent, 3 percent and 5 percent respectively. However, "we expect in the forecast that growth in Estonia's main export markets will not die down totally and the mutual distrust in the global financial markets will pass," it said. If these expectations do not come true, we will have to be ready for a longer economic adjustment period." Continued..

Inflation would come in at 10.7 percent this year, easing to 4.8 percent in 2009 and 2.8 percent in 2010.

It saw the budget gap at 1.4 percent of GDP this year, 2.5 percent in 2009 and then easing to 1.3 percent in 2010.

"According to Eesti Pank's estimate, the consolidated state budget for 2008 and 2009 will be in a deficit, but owing to the reserves accumulated in previous years, public sector debt will grow minimally," it said.

A budget gap should be temporary and moderate, it added, and is acceptable so long as it does not pose a risk to the economy or the adoption of the euro as soon as possible. A new budget strategy would be needed, with a focus particularly on 2010.

The bank saw unemployment stable at 4.8 percent this year after 4.7 percent in 2007, but expected sharp rises to 7.0 percent in 2009 and to 8.3 percent the year after.

At the same time, it saw the current account gap falling due to the economic slowdown from an expected 11.1 percent this year to 6.5 percent in 2009, before edging up to 7.1 percent in 2010.

Source http://reuters.com/article/rbssfinancialservicesandrealestat~

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Investment bankers expect growth of takeovers

Estonia’s leading investment bankers say that this is a buyer’s market right now and expect the number of takeover to increase.

“If you compare it with the situation a year ago when we were contacted by buyers, now most enquiries are coming from owners that offer their business for sale,” Rain Tamm, senior partner of investment bank GILD Bankers, told Eesti Päevaleht.

Tamm says that local business owners have become notably more interested in finding a buyer for their companies which means that there may a wave of foreign investments flowing into Estonia in the next few years.

He added that the biggest obstacle to such takeovers is that sellers are demanding a much higher price for their companies than buyers are ready to pay.

Tamm said that likely takeover targets are operating in very different business sectors and include some large enterprises, but did not specify which.

“The situation is favourable for buyers since prices of companies have come down between 10 and 50 percent in the last 18 months,” said one investment banker who expects venture funds that until now have not been interested in Baltic businesses to become more active. “But also large Scandinavian producers and construction companies have become more active.”

One of the companies that is on the seller’s market is food producer Kalev whose planned takeover by Alta Capital a year ago failed and that could now become interesting for large Finnish confectionery group Fazer. Kalev’s large shareholder Oliver Kruuda nor Fazer’s executives were available for comment.

Source http://balticbusinessnews.com/default2.aspx

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