OREANDA-NEWS. May 15, 2014. The commercial bank with the most pessimistic outlook on the country's economic growth for 2014, SEB, says even its figure may be too high. 

SEB analyst Ruta Arumae said that the final figure for the year could well be negative.

Statistics Estonia released its flash figures today according to which GDP in the first quarter was 1.9 percent less than it was for the same period a year ago.

SEB said in late March that 2014 growth would be 0.5%, contrasting to the 2 percent forecast by the Ministry of Finance.

Arumae said today that 0.5 percent growth is on the "positive margin" and presumed that foreign demand would recover.

"It's quite likely that the year will end in the red. The earliest recovery of annual economic growth that I would expect to see would be next year," Arumae said.