The severity of Latvia’s economic depression and the government’s deflationist policies have never been in doubt. However, the success of the internal devaluation process remains questionable. The adjustment process was meant to lower domestic prices, particularly wages, in order to restore the international competitiveness of the economy and stimulate exports. According to the latest data,… [Read more]
The three Baltic economies of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have been the biggest losers of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, contracting by 14.1%, 14.8% and a whopping 18.0% in 2009 respectively. After overheating in the preceding three years (Latvia grew on average 10.9% between 2005 and 2007), tightening global credit conditions towards the tail-end of… [Read more]
Few countries have been as badly hit by the global downturn as Latvia. According to a flash estimate released by the statistical office, the Latvian economy plunged by 18.4% y-o-y during the third quarter, which although below the consensus contraction of 19-20%, was nonetheless a horrific rate of decline. Indeed, this would mark the third… [Read more]