Tallinn - The European Union will soon stage a simulated cyber-attack to test its online defences, Estonian Economy Minister Juhan Parts told an EU ministerial conference in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Tuesday. Speaking on the second day of a two-day gathering dedicated to Critical Information Infrastructure Protection
(CIIP), Parts said the meeting would mark "a beginning of much needed common action at EU level in the area of CIIP policy.

Tallinn - Estonia unveiled ambitious plans Friday to get high-speed internet access to every one of the Baltic state's 1.3 million residents by 2015.

An agreement reached by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and an industry group - the Association of Estonian Information Technology and Telecommunications Companies - promises to turn the entire country into a super-high speed internet hotspot by means of a project called EstWin.

Tallinn - The Estonian central bank, Eesti Pank, dropped its outlook for economic growth Wednesday in the latest sign that the recession hitting the Baltic region will be worse than previously forecast.

"According to Eesti Pank's spring forecast, this year's economic downturn in Estonia will be around 12 per cent. The majority of economic experts do not expect growth in the world (and also in Estonia) to resume before 2010," said an economic policy statement released by the bank.

Tallinn - The Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) called on the Baltic state of Estonia Monday to introduce more flexible budgets and to avoid producing another housing bubble.

Tallinn - Official figures released by the Estonian national statistics office Tuesday showed the Baltic state's March consumer price index (CPI) rising by 2 per cent year-on-year, compared to 3.4 per cent in February.

The last time the year-on-year CPI figure dipped below 2 per cent was in April 2004.

Estonia's year-on-year inflation figures peaked at 11.4 per cent as recently as June 2008.

The news will provide a boost to the Estonian government's aim to adopt the euro as the national currency as early as July 2010.

Tallinn - Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and his Latvian counterpart Valdis Dombrovskis met in the Estonian capital, Tallinn on Thursday to compare notes on the Baltic region's economic woes and to prepare for the forthcoming NATO summit to be held in Strasbourg and Kehl.

Ansip tried to strike an upbeat note despite the economic gloom in the two countries which have seen real estate bubbles burst and rapid growth go into an equally rapid decline.