Estonia - Money



The currency board and the requirement for a balanced budget has prompted Estonia to establish an offshore stabilization fund where it deposits income above its expenditures. Such revenue comes from privatization, including the initial public offering of Eesti Telekom at

Exchange rates: Estonia
krooni (EEK) per US$1
Jan 2001 16.663
2000 16.969
1999 14.678
1998 14.075
1997 13.882
1996 12.034
Note: Krooni are tied to the German deutsche mark at a fixed rate of 8 to 1.
SOURCE: CIA World Factbook 2001 [ONLINE].

the Tallinn Stock Exchange in 1998. The 2 largest banks, Hansapank and Uhispank, acquired by Swedish financial institutions, opened their own brokerage houses that fueled the boom of the Tallinn Stock Exchange after 1998. Swedish SEB and Swedbank have also made Estonia a center of financial consolidation in the Baltics as they target the largest Latvian and Lithuanian banks for acquisition. Inflation , which had been a serious problem in the years immediately following independence, has been tamed since the mid-1990s and was estimated at 3.3 percent a year in 1999.

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