Business, Estonia, Financial Services, Markets and Companies

"The euro will make people more equal. It's exactly as if we had introduced the progressive income tax as proposed by the Centre Party," investment banker Rain Lõhmus told in an interview to the daily.

The economic crisis has reduced the number of Estonian billionaires from 42 to 22 according to official income data; the introduction of the euro is going to do the rest.

Irrespective whether it is a Russian plumber living in Lasnamae and earning minimum wage, or Toomas Annus, reportedly Estonia's richest businessman according to the Äripäev list of richest people, when the clock strikes the midnight hour on December 31, 2010, they will all feel somewhat poorer since the value of their wealth will be divided by 15.646. After the euro changeover, Annus will cease to be a billionaire with assets of 2.6 billion kroons and will become a mere millionaire worth 169 million euros.

Estonian billionaires mostly do not take the richlists seriously.

Priit Piilmann, the owner of Viru Keemia Group worth approximately two billion kroons, said: "We here in tiny Estonia simply go about our everyday business. I don't have time to think about it."

Another entrepreneur, Kalev Jarvelill whose holding in Tallink is estimated to be worth 1.6 billion kroons, shares the same opinion and adds: "The status of a billionaire is leaving me indifferent. Speculations about wealth of businessmen is doing more harm than good."

Oleg Ossinovski, the owner of Spacecom logistics firm with assets of 1.5 billion kroons, says that no-one in these richlists have a billion kroons in his or her pocket, meaning that usually the worth of assets is counted down.

"Plus, many on top of this list keep a low profile and are not known to the general public," Ossinovski said.

Psychologist Voldemar Kolga says that everyone in Italy was also a billionaire when it still had the lira, but the important thing is that Italians are now living better under the euro.

"I think that Estonians are accustomed to having a new currency. I once spoke to an old Estonian man who said that he had seen currencies changed seven times and is not afraid of anything," the specialist noted.

Kolga added that when Estonia gets the euro, it will create a nationwide feeling of membership in an exclusive club and a mental connection with these nations that also use the euro.

"This mutual feeling will be good and give courage to withstand the life's hardships," he added.