summer is happy, but at the end of the year…

“After the first quarter, we see very sad numbers,” began Igor Rõtov, director general of Äripäiv. “Taxes will rise, and I don’t believe that the fall of the Euribor will lift the real estate market. I also don’t believe in a rapid improvement in export numbers. Domestic consumption will fall very strongly — we can already see that it has not risen anywhere —, car sales will freeze.”

However, Rõtov is positive, because summer and autumn bring rapid growth, which makes the economic growth in 2025 2 percent.

“Somewhere in the summer it will be happy, we will get used to the new environment, foreign markets will improve and interest rates will fall further, and we will see very strong growth in the last months of the year.”

Editor-in-chief Meelis Mandel and head of investment Juhan Lang are also quite optimistic, although the tax increase and inflation faster than wage growth are negative developments in their eyes.

“But by the end of the year, we will no longer talk about the miracle of Lithuania. There is simply no reason, because we are in a better position ourselves,” said Mandel.

According to Lang, subjective assessment is even more important than macro indicators. “The most important thing is what the person himself feels. Nobody is probably interested in what the average unemployment or Euribor is, but how they themselves are doing.”

Together with the host Indrek Lepik, the studio team predicted the prospects and challenges for the Estonian economy in the coming year, as well as global perspectives, including the course of the war in Ukraine and stock exchanges of major countries.

The program included predictions for the prospects of Russian public finances as well as price targets for major stock market indices and technology stocks. At the same time, Meelis Mandel believes that the euribor will reach a level that few people currently forecast.