Estonia has been a member of the European Union since 2004 and adopted the euro as its official currency in 2011. Estonia joined the OECD in 2010.
It takes less than 20 minutes to establish a company in Estonia and registration can be completed entirely online. Companies registered in Estonia do not pay income tax on re-invested profits. Foreign and domestic investments in Estonia are treated equally under the law. Estonia has highly developed digital infrastructure with wide internet access, digital signatures, national identification cards, and most government services are online. Nearly 99 percent of banking transactions in Estonia are conducted electronically.
Estonia is the most transparent and the least corrupt country in the Central and Eastern Europe region – it was ranked 14th out of 180 counties on the 2022 Corruption Perception Index together with Canada, Iceland, and Uruguay.
Estonia recovered quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic but was hit hard last year by high electricity prices, along with a CPI increase of more than 19 percent, which is expected to slow down to 9.6 percent in 2023 and 4.6 percent in 2024. Estonian GDP decreased last year by 0.5 percent and is expected to fall by two percent in 2023. A modest increase is expected next year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division, the principal exports in 2022 from the United States were wireless networks and electronic precision measuring equipment and motor vehicles and parts thereof. U.S. exports to Estonia were $405 million and Estonian exports to the United States were close to $1.4 billion.
Estonia’s main trading partners are Finland, Sweden, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania, while the U.S. share of Estonia’s foreign trade is approximately three percent.
Political Environment
Visit State Department’s website for background on the Estonia’s political and economic environment