Its efforts to regain monetary stability have also borne some fruit. Broad goals to reach firm monetary stability and credibility still remain. The share of government consumption and transfers, though modest by European standards, is relatively high compared to the rest of the world.
Reforms leading to privatization are under way to reduce the government enterprises.
For example, in 1997, a partial privatization of Estonian Telecom was conducted to reduce the government's stake to 27 percent. Visible restructuring of the banking sector was also undertaken. However, restrictions on ownership of foreign currencies still remain. One point for consideration is the lack of a fully guaranteed rule of law and viability of contracts, a characteristic of all three Baltic States. A threat for Estonia's economic prosperity is the economic situation in Russia, although the bilateral trade dependencies are declining since Estonia has gained independence.