Baltic Morning News
Baltic dairies fighting for raw milk. BBN writes that Baltic countries are on verge of a milk war. Latvian milk farmers prefer to sell milk to Lithuanian dairy companies that pay more than local dairies, while Latvian dairy companies itself are forced to buy milk from Estonia. According to statistics, Latvian milk exports to Lithuania went up 7,000 times in a year last year, and most of the 42,700 tons of exported milk to Lithuania was non-processed raw milk (99.8%). However, the Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis is not happy with the situation and he has said that such a policy must be curbed in the "strongest possible way although Lithuania is the neighbour". Of our great interest is how this could affect Pieno´s (Buy) raw milk supplies.
New car sales at record high level. According to Estonian business daily Äripäev, new car sales in Estonia increased 30% to a record high level of 25,230 passenger cars in 2006. The best selling car brand last year was Toyota with 3,529 cars, followed by Volkswagen with 2,141 cars, and Honda with 2,070 new vehicles.
Wages growing faster than productivity. According to Äripäev, the trend of labour costs increasing at a faster rate than productivity also continued in Q3. Productivity (sales per employed person) increased 16% in Q3, while labour costs per employed person went up by 21%.
Number of trades at Tallinn Stock Exchange up 52%. According to Tallinn Stock Exchange (TSE), the number of transactions increased 52% in 2006, while the number of securities accounts registered in Estonian CSD went up by 18%. At the same time, the percentage of private persons trading has increased, as the average size of a transaction has dropped 75% from EUR 47,002 to EUR 12,182. Clearly, investing has become more popular in Estonia.
House prices up 1.6x in a year in Estonia. According to the online real estate portal city24.ee, the average square meter price has gone up 1.58 times in a year for houses sold in Estonia. Currently, the average price per square meter of houses on sale in Estonia is EEK 14,900 (EUR 952), while a year ago the corresponding figure was EEK 9,458 (EUR 604). In Tallinn, the average price for a square meter for houses has gone up less, 51% in a year to EEK 26,132 (EUR 1,670).
Latvians worried about the overheating economy. Yesterday, Latvia's leading economic experts met at the Ministry of Economy to discuss whether the government must intervene to avoid the crash, BBN wrote. The main points discussed were not new: current account deficit at worrying levels (24.2% of GDP in Q3), and economic growth, mainly driven by domestic demand, is not balanced across sectors. Over a half of the 11.8% GDP growth came only from two sectors: trade (+19%) and real estate, renting and business activities (+18.1%). We can add that the same problems apply also to the other Baltic States.
Latvia quadruples fines on jaywalkers and horses. Latvia has long had one of the worst death rates from traffic accidents in Europe. Poor roads, an explosive growth in car ownership and widespread tolerance of drink driving have all contributed to the problem, Playfuls.com wrote. Therefore, Latvian politicians voted on Wednesday to quadruple fines on jaywalkers (pedestrians found out after dark without reflectors) and law-breaking drivers of horse-drawn carriages. Increased fines were also approved for speeding drivers (those with excessively tinted windscreens).
