No 4 (227) 25 June 2002

ESTONIA'S INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION AND EXTERNAL DEBT
as of 31 March 2002

By the end of the first quarter of 2002 foreign investments made into Estonia totalled 118.1 billion kroons, of which 52.7% or 62.3 billion kroons were direct investments that do not contribute to the external debt (see Table 1). The economic sectors that attracted foreign investors the most were finance (26% of all direct investments), transport, storage and communication (23%) and manufacturing (20%; see Figure 1). The bulk of direct investment capital came from Sweden (36%) and Finland (29%; see Figure 2).

The structure of foreign investments has changed little as compared to the end of last year. In direct investments, the part of share capital and reinvested income has increased faster. The proportion of share capital and equity securities under portfolio investments increased as a result of the growth of capital inflow as well as the rise of prices.

Investments from Estonia abroad amounted to 55.1 billion kroons at the end of the first quarter. Nearly half of this was made up of loans and deposits and over a quarter of gold and foreign currency reserves of the central bank. The share of direct investments in Estonia's total investments abroad was over 14%. Estonian investors prefer such economic sectors as finance (41% of all direct investments abroad) and real estate, leasing and business services (19%; see Figure 3). By countries, the majority of direct investments were made into Lithuania (44%) and Latvia (35%; see Figure 4).

Due to the predominance of external liabilities, Estonia's net investment position at the end of the first quarter was negative by 63 billion kroons.

On 31 March, Estonia's total external debt amounted to 62.6 billion kroons and the net external debt (external debt claims minus external debt liabilities) stood at 9.9 billion kroons (approximately 10% of the expected GDP of the past four quarters; see Table 2). The dynamics of Estonia's total foreign debt and net foreign debt can be seen from Figure 5.

* * * * *

The preliminary international investment position and external debt as of 30 June 2002 will be published at the Eesti Pank web site (http://www.eestipank.info) at noon on 30 September 2002.

International and External Relations Department of Eesti Pank
PS Please acknowledge the source when publishing or citing.

Table 1. Estonia's international investment position (EEK m)(1)

(1) After additional information is received, data of the earlier period has been updated accordingly.

Figure 1. Direct investment position in Estonia by spheres of activity as of 31 March 2002

Figure 2. Direct investment position in Estonia by countries as of 31 March 2002

Figure 3. Estonia's direct investment position abroad by spheres of activity as of 31 March 2002

Figure 4. Estonia's direct investment position abroad by countries as of 31 March 2002

Table 2. External debt (EEK m)

Figure 5. Estonia's gross and net external debt