This is hardly surprising, but still. The Baltic Business News is reporting that Indrek Neivelt, chairperson of the Estonian Development Fund is saying that Estonia isnâ€™t competitive with its current cost base, and the only option that faces the country is lowering prices and cutting salaries.

â€œOur main problem after this consumption party is competitiveness. The money has been devalued in many export markets. With our expense base and prices we are no longer competitive. Polish food is going to Lithuania and itâ€™ll be here soon. Soon we might not be able to produce food competitively,â€ Neivelt said. â€œToday is the situation that shopping in the UK is cheaper, sitting into the taxi is cheaper than in Tallinn, eating out is cheaper than in Tallinn â€“ with our prices we arenâ€™t competitive,â€

Estonian PM Andrus Ansip also acknowledged in a press conference today that one of the reasons for the deterioration of the current crisis in the country is that some the governments in some export markets such as Ukraine, Russia, Sweden and UK had gone for allowing their currencies to weaken against the euro.

The number of unemployed is also on the rise in Estonia, and increased by 4155 or 15.8 pct in December month on month, according to the local Labour Market Board. Compared to December 2007 the unemployment rate has risen by 115.3 pct.

And local stock market analyst TÃµnis Oja has come to the conclusion that the Baltic economic crisis may have affected Sweden more even than the Baltics themselves. Oja wrote in the magazine Ã„ripÃ¤ev that concerns that Swedish banks were overexposed on the Baltic loan and real estate market not only caused the banksâ€™ share prices to plummet, but it was also partly responsible for the value of the Swedish krona falling from 1.67 SEK per Estonian kroon in the summer to 1.43 kroons (and by an equivalent percentage against the euro).