Speaking on ETV+'s "Kohv+" program, entrepreneur Oleg Ossinovski said Estonia's main problem is hyperinflation, as prices are rising faster than in other European countries. Instead of trying to tackle every issue at once, he said the government should focus on this one.

"Raising taxes creates pressure to increase wages. But when wages go up, prices rise automatically and that leads to inflation. That's the problem. Wages and prices are in a constant race, a vicious circle — but prices always reach the finish line first," Ossinovski said.

According to him, Estonia's high inflation stems from the Ministry of Finance's unreasonable policies.

"I used to consider [Finance Minister] Jürgen Ligi (Reform) a smart and capable leader — he proved himself during the 2007–2008 crisis. But I guess age affects everyone the same way," he remarked. "What the Ministry of Finance is doing today is absolutely disgraceful. They're running a deficit budget, which means we're borrowing money and injecting it into an already inflationary economy. It's basically like putting out a fire with gasoline. Inflation just keeps growing because we're pumping new money into the system."

The entrepreneur said money should instead be withdrawn from the economy to curb inflation. The budget should be drafted with a surplus or at least be balanced, rather than in deficit.

"Right now we're taking out loans for investments that bring double costs. For example, electrifying the Narva railway will significantly raise ticket prices. We'll still have to maintain it and the state already subsidizes every passenger. We have a massive number of inefficient investments the state shouldn't be making," Ossinovski said.

He argued that managing finances isn't particularly complicated and compared it to running a household budget: if money runs short, something has to be cut.

"Yet for some reason we're still building the Rail Baltica route, which no one actually needs. The most sensible decision would be to freeze the project," he said. "That would save hundreds of millions of euros upfront and hundreds of millions more later in maintenance costs. That's what we'd do in a family — if we made a bad investment, we'd write it off, move on and close that chapter."

According to Ossinovski, the main challenge facing Estonian businesses today is the rapid rise in wages.

"Companies simply can't handle such large wage increases — since 2022, salaries have risen by an average of 40 percent. With every new hike, more businesses disappear. We can't export our products because our production costs are too high," Ossinovski said.

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