The stability and credibility of the banking groups operating here, supported by close cooperation between Baltic and Nordic countries also help Estonia overcome the crisis. Banks in Estonia have sufficient funds to support restructuring in both the business sector and the entire economy. Eesti Pank's analyses confirm that the current capitalisation is sufficient to cover possible larger loan losses without banks having to include additional capital. The resources of banks allow their lending decisions to be based on favourable medium-term and longer-term economic outlooks, since Estonia's economic convergence, i.e., the movement of our income level towards that of EU richer countries, will continue also in the future. Thus, the goal of banking and financial sector policy is cooperation with the home countries of the banks operating in the EU and Estonia to ensure the functioning of the common banking market and group-level stability. The steps taken by the home countries of the banks operating in Estonia have considered the interests of the entire group and thus supported financial stability in Estonia. In this light it has to be emphasised that the measures to support the economy approved in Estonia allow state aid also in a situation where financial markets no longer function normally. But the main aim of the state support measures is to organise the financing of starting and exporting enterprises. The total debt burden of Estonia's enterprises is relatively big and a decline in the total volume of debt in 2009 is a natural reaction to previous years' rapid increase.

This process, which many analysts considered in the beginning to be a temporary correction, escalated rapidly and turned into a crisis. But the solvency problems of US lower-income residents and their inability to repay their mortgages were naturally not the main causes of the current situation. Every economic crisis is in its nature overproduction, when new services and goods find no buyers. Therefore, enterprises squeeze their production, lay off employees and refrain from new investments. The current situation is no exception to this rule. It also lies in overproduction and insufficient demand, which are caused by two main reasons. One reason is excessive optimism which prevailed in many parts of the advanced economies and in financial markets, encouraging people to consume more and save less. The demand based on over-optimism was driven by overly large fiscal deficits in major economies and probably also by unduly low interest rates in many parts of the world. Another factor contributing to exorbitant demand was the regulation of the financial system, which practically rewarded risk-taking. The other, just as significant reason is economic policy pursued by several Asian countries which was based on relatively cheap exports and low currency exchange rates. Broad-based and sustainable domestic demand was and is too little valued in economies based on cheap labour force, goods exports and related investment. Therefore, it can be assumed that private consumption and domestic demand were below par in Eastern Asia. The result was large current account surpluses and accumulating foreign reserves that were lent to the rich USA.