The expenses in the Eesti Pank budget will increase by 7.4% next year to 30.6 million euros. Without cash handling costs, which vary a lot from year to year, the expenditures in the budget will be 28.9 million euros, which is 9.8% larger than in 2023.

The core activities of the central bank include cash circulation and ensuring that payments are made, analysis of the economy and the financial sector, and compilation of statistics on the financial sector. Key issues for the central bank in 2024 besides its core activities will again centre around cyber security, readiness for various crisis scenarios, and reducing the central bank’s environmental footprint.

Eesti Pank is planning to order additional 50-euro banknotes in 2024, and to mint two-euro coins with a special design dedicated to the national flower, the cornflower, and the 500th anniversary of the written Estonian language. It will also make a silver coin for the Estonian athletes competing in the Olympic games in Paris and one dedicated to the Finnish Boys as part of a new series celebrating Resistance.

The largest software development will see 1.2 million euros spent on the ATLAS data processing and analysis system for statistics, which will let Eesti Pank compile statistics faster and with broader scope. The different statistical outputs are integrated together in the new system, and it will allow for much greater automation in compiling them. Another major software development will be the introduction of new risk management software for the financial assets of the central bank, which will make it possible to find the optimal distribution of assets to earn a long-term stable return given the expectations for income, risk tolerance and various other restrictions.

The budget for next year also includes a contribution to the development costs of the digital euro to finance the first phase of the preparatory work. The first preparatory phase of the digital euro will test how digital euro payments might be made without an internet connection, which could be important in an emergency.

The central bank will also contribute to the next wave of the household finance and consumption survey. The previous wave of the survey was run in 2021, and the results from it were presented in 2023.

Eesti Pank will invest 7 million euros in fixed assets in 2024. It will start a project next year to renovate the ventilation system of the central bank block to get better control over energy and heating costs. The largest building work next year will be the reconstruction of the old banking operations hall at Estonia pst 13 to create additional working rooms for Finantsinspektsioon.

The rebuilding of the Eesti Pank Museum will also start next year, as the museum has been operating in its current guise since early 2012. The museum will be renamed Rahamu and the permanent exhibition in it will be rethought in 2024 with a dedicated space for press conferences and presentations.

Eesti Pank will have full-time equivalent positions for 241.3 people in 2024, which is essentially the same as in 2023. Spending by Eesti Pank on human resources in 2024 will be 15.7 million euros. Eesti Pank aims to keep the salaries of its employees at roughly the same level as those for similar positions in the financial sector in Tallinn, which is where the central bank mainly competes for employees.

Additional information:
Viljar Rääsk
Head of Communications
Eesti Pank
6680 745, 5275 055
Email: [email protected]
Press enquiries: [email protected]