Business News
Latvian economy continues its breakneck "tiger ride"
Feb 9, 2007, 13:39 GMT
Riga - The Latvian economy continued its breakneck development in the last quarter of 2006, growing 11.9 per cent year- on-year, the Latvian Statistics Bureau announced on Friday.
It is the seventh successive quarter in which Latvia has scored double-digit growth. The small Baltic state, population 2.3 million, joined the EU in May 2004 as its poorest member.
Since then the economy has gone into overdrive, with total GDP growth over the whole period reaching almost 30 per cent. In the first quarter of 2006 alone, it grew 13.1 per cent year-on-year.
Growth in Latvia's neighbours, Estonia and Lithuania, has also been spectacular. The trio had the three fastest-growing economies in the EU in 2005, earning the nickname of 'Baltic tigers.'
However, the red-hot growth has come at a price. Inflation in all three countries is higher than the levels mandated for euro entry, with Latvia announcing on Thursday that its annual inflation in January was 7.1 per cent.
Economists have warned that the combination of rapid growth and high inflation could threaten long-term development.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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IvarsApr 10th, 2007 - 13:07:00
Everything will be OK. Macroeconomic indicators does not bear enough information to forecast Latvian development.
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