Although Estonia witnessed the European Union's third-deepest recession, last year, its credit rating outlook has been raised by Fitch. Fitch lifted the outlook on the BBB+ rating, three notches above non-investment grade, to stabilize and raise it above negative.

"The downside risks to Estonia's rating have moderated and are balanced by the increased probability that Estonia could adopt the euro in January 2011. Estonia looks increasingly likely to meet the Maastricht reference rate for the public finances, which has been the key obstacle to euro adoption, while the macroeconomic adjustment of the Estonian economy appears to be well-advanced", said Eral Yilmaz, an Analyst at Fitch.

The Estonian ministry has announced that Estonia is very likely to meet euro criteria. This is because the revenue in 2009 was 100.7 percent of the budgeted level, while spending was 95.6 percent.

In November 2009, the European Commission had said that Estonia will have EU's lowest debt-to-GDP ratio at 10.9 percent, this year, compared with 76.7 percent in Germany because it doesn't have a sovereign bond market.

The National Statistics Office will publish the preliminary budget data according to European Union standards, on March 26th 2010.