OECD Economic Surveys: Estonia 2017
The Estonian economy displays numerous strengths, including an excellent business environment, high educational attainment, and solid public finances. However, around a quarter of the population is still at risk of poverty and productivity growth has slowed down. Fiscal room should be used to make growth stronger and more inclusive.
Estonia is well integrated into global trade, and export potential and value-added drawn from trade can improve further. Efforts should concentrate on strengthening adult education, immigration of talents, and cooperation between businesses and researchers.
Investment has weakened, particularly in projects required to increase business productivity. Addressing skill shortages and inefficiencies in the insolvency regime can help raise firms’ investment capacity. Improving the quality of infrastructure projects and developing green investment further is a priority.
SPECIAL FEATURES: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF TRADE; REVIVING INVESTMENT
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Getting the most out of trade
Estonia is highly integrated into the global trade system: it exports approximately 80% of GDP and around half of domestic employment is sustained by foreign demand. Given that international trade and foreign direct investment are considered as major channels of technology diffusion and productivity growth, this bodes well for reviving income convergence. To capitalize on the country’s high trade intensity, policymakers need to remove remaining trade barriers and improve policies fostering knowledge diffusion as well as talent retention and attraction. At the same time, to ensure that benefits of more trade are shared across the population, the social safety net should be bolstered, and participation in upskilling programmes and their labour-market relevance increased.