OREANDA-NEWS. August 19, 2010. Estonia's gross domestic product grew by 3.5 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period of 2009, flash estimates of the national statistics office show.

The GDP grew last in the fourth quarter of 2007.

In the first quarter of this year a decrease of 2.3 percent was recorded.

The second-quarter GDP was above all influenced by the 10 percent growth of value added in the industrial sector, Statistics Estonia said. The growth was supported by the strong exports of manufacturing production and electricity.

The value added generated by the mining of oil shale used for producing electricity grew fast as well. Doe to small domestic demand, sales of manufacturing production on the domestic market decreased, the statistics office noted. The value added generated in construction whose output mainly targets the domestic market showed a continued downtrend.

In the wholesale and retail trade the value added increased under the impact of the growth of value added in wholesale. The value added generated in retail trade kept decreasing due to insufficient demand. In financial intermediation the growth of value added was primarily influenced by the growth of banks' income from service charges and by the growth of net premiums of insurance companies.

The seasonally and working day-adjusted GDP increased by 2 percent in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter, preliminary figures show.

Statistics Estonia will publish the second-quarter GDP calculated by the complex approach on Sept. 8.