Estonia

After centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian rule, Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcibly incorporated into the USSR in 1940 - an action never recognized by the US - it regained its freedom in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the last Russian troops left in 1994, Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties with Western Europe. It joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Estonian kroon, Euro (ISO code: EEK, EUR)
* Central bank discount rate: 
* Commercial banks lending rate: 8.55% (31 December 2008)
* Stock of money (M1): $6.106 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $5.478 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Estonia: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	5 705	5 676 	6 240 	7 324 	9 845 	12 031	13 903	16 606	21 448	23 401
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Estonia: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	 	6.872 	6.346 	7.411 	7.829 	7.955 	5.389 	4.846 	4.095 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Estonia: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	 	30.990	29.898	30.937	31.328	30.524	30.184	31.402	31.937	
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Estonia: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.	 	29.488	27.734	27.903	27.490	27.629	26.859	26.728	26.844	
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	0.222 	0.212 	0.240 	0.250 	0.261 	0.179 	0.154 	0.128 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Estonia on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Estonia
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
* Ministers offer Estonia entry to eurozone January 1 - Estonia to enter the Eurozone by January 1st, 2011
Category:Countries