Recent Events in Politics and Economics

The European Investment Bank provides 200 million Euros to support strategic investments in Latvia
The loan will be available as co-financing for selected projects under the programmes “Growth and Employment” and “Rural Development” for 2014–2020. The loan will primarily support projects in research, education and ICT sectors. Read More
Potential Recipients of EU Structural Funding Can Start Planning Projects to Apply
Ministry of Finance has developed a supplement for EU Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund program “Growth and Employment”, total investment amount of which is 4.4 billion Euros. For this program, Latvia has many priorities some of which are economic productivity, innovation performance, building research and scientific capacity, efficient and environmentally friendly transport system. Read More
Most Recent Eurozone Economic Forecast Data for Latvia
According to EY, Latvian economic growth in 2015 will be based on domestic consumption; growth in exports will significantly recover only next year. Despite the geopolitical tensions and difficulties in exports this year, Latvian economy will still grow by 2.9%. It is expected that household consumption will grow by 3.6% (2.5% last year). EY researchers indicated that Latvia should not be concerned about deflation as the annual inflation rate is intended to be low (about 0.9%). Read More
Latvian Foreign Trade Activity
According to Central Statistical Bureau, Latvia's external trade turnover in Jan. 2015 dropped by 9.3%, with export and import contracting respectively by 3.0% and 14.2%. The rate of yearly growth in goods trade was different: year-on-year, export rose by 5.4%, whereas import dropped by 3.5%. Read More
Latvian Labor Market Performance in 2014
The rate of drop of the unemployment level in Latvia in 2014 slowed down substantially to 1.1 percentage points (from 11.9% to 10.8% of the economically active population) Read More
Salary Hikes Expected in 2015 to Keep Qualified Staff
The latest KPMG survey "Pulse of Economy 2014" reveals that hiring and keeping qualified staff is an increasing problem for companies in Central and Eastern European which will likely lead to further salary hikes in 2015. Read More