Household savings totaled €10.3 billion at the end of November – an increase of €1 billion over the year despite the coronavirus crisis, data from the Bank of Estonia shows. Bank of Estonia economist Taavi Raudsaar believes two main factors contributed to the growth in savings. “The first is that there is increased uncertainty. Due to the uncertainty about the near future, people have reduced their consumption and started to save more. This is common behavior in most crises,” he said. “The second thing in the current crisis is that some services and goods – for example, travel and entertainmen ..read more

The Lithuanian government’s Extreme Situations Commission has recommended to extend restrictions on movement between different municipalities that were set to expire on Sunday. The ban on leaving the municipality one resides in was introduced on December 16 in an effort to rein in the spread of the coronavirus in Lithuania. Exceptions apply to movement for work, medical reasons, or to attend the funeral of a close relative. People who own property in a different municipality are also exempt. “The recommendation [from the Extreme Situations Commission] is to extend restrictions on movement betw ..read more

A new electricity connection between Estonia and its southern neighbor Latvia has been completed. The connection was part-European Union funded, and represents part of an ongoing process of synchronization with the grid systems of the rest of the union, away from those of the Russian Federation. The connection, which cost a total of around €170 million to install, is the third of its kind, with operation set to commence on New Year’s Day, BNS reports. From the beginning of 2021, the line is available to the electricity market and adds approximately 600 MW of transmission capacity between the t ..read more

The first months of 2021 will remain extremely difficult for airlines, with some closures likely and reduced travel opportunities as a result, Henrik Hololei, Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, told ERR Sunday. Speaking to ERR’s Toomas Sildam, Holohei said: “This year will be particularly quiet, but there is some hope that things will get better in the second quarter as the [coronavirus] vaccine reaches the mass of populations more widely. I believe this will bring a more positive turnaround. But it will definitely be an extremely diff ..read more

The Lithuanian government’s Extreme Situations Commission has recommended to extend restrictions on movement between different municipalities that were set to expire on Sunday. The ban on leaving the municipality one resides in was introduced on December 16 in an effort to rein in the spread of the coronavirus in Lithuania. Exceptions apply to movement for work, medical reasons, or to attend the funeral of a close relative. People who own property in a different municipality are also exempt. “The recommendation [from the Extreme Situations Commission] is to extend restrictions on movement betw ..read more

January 3 in Latvia saw 568 new Covid-19 cases recorded, according to the Disease Prevention and Control Center (SPKC). The highest daily total so far was on December 31, when 1,861 new infections were confirmed. The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic now stands at 42,497. Of 5,896 tests carried out in the last 24 hours, 9.6% were positive. Twelve deaths were also confirmed. Of those, one victim was aged 40-45 years, one was aged 50-55, four were aged 70-80, four were aged 80-90 and two were aged 90-95. In total 680 people have now died in ..read more

The coronavirus pandemic and its accompanying economic crisis has brought new life to some small businesses in the southeastern Estonian town of Võru, and even led to the creation of new ones, primarily cafes and stores, often set up by people who lost their previous livelihood as the pandemic spread, ETV news show “Aktuaalne kaamera” (AK) reported Saturday evening. Manager of the Karamelli kohvik Kristina Noorsalu told AK that the crisis brought favorable opportunities to start and expand her business. She said: “In fact, our dream had been for a very long time to create a lovely place in the ..read more

Lithuania’s statistics office reported 1,493 new coronavirus infections and 25 deaths on Saturday morning. On Friday, it reported 3,322 new cases and 130 deaths. However, the National Public Health Centre (NVSC) said the latter figure – which would have been by far the highest daily death toll to date – included 88 older cases that had not been previously reported. “These are belated death figures that hospitals had not reported to us under standard protocol. They were asked, on our initiative, to send us the information,” the centre’s spokeswoman Austina Vženiauskienė told reporters on Friday ..read more

There were 1,239 new coronavirus infections confirmed in Lithuania over the last 24 hours, the country’s statistics office reported on Sunday morning. Moreover, 27 people died of Covid-19. Since the start of the pandemic, Lithuania has confirmed 146,637 coronavirus cases. At the moment, there are 66,782 active cases, while 77,362 people have recovered. The country’s hospitals are treating 2,494 Covid-19 patients, 185 of them arein intensive care. In all, 1,643 people have died of Covid-19, while 850 people who had the virus died of other causes. According to Statistics Lithuania, 6,399 people ..read more

Repair of a section of rail track in southwest Estonia which will be used in the building of the planned high-speed Rail Baltica line will soon be underway. The work is largely funded by the European Union. The existing line being repaired, running between Lelle, Rapla County, and Pärnu, will not be part of the Rail Baltica route, but instead will be used to transport construction materials for same. The 40 km/h rail link will primarily convey rail, sleepers, sand and gravel to be used in the Tootsi-Ikla, Pärnu County, section construction of Rail Baltica, which is set to complete in 2024 and ..read more