Filter by specific countries or regions
[video] Estonia’s euro advice for Latvia
Latvia hopes to become the 18th EU member state to join the eurozone. Estonia became the 17th in 2011. The FT’s Nordic and Baltic correspondent Richard Milne spoke to the President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, about his country’s experience in the eurozone and his advice to Latvia.
Guest post: keep an eye on Latvia’s non-resident bank deposits
By Otilia Simkova of Eurasia Group
In the midst of the mayhem over Cyprus, some observers of Europe’s banking crisis noticed another small country – Latvia.
The Baltic country made headlines when it applied to join the eurozone by January 2014, pushing ahead despite doubts about the benefits of accession. Now it risks making news again for another reason: non-resident deposits. Foreign money, especially from Russia, has been trickling in. Continue reading »
Latvia goes for the euro
Premier Dombrovskis
A vote of confidence in the euro: Latvia on Monday formally decided to join the troubled common currency, with the prime minister, finance minister and central bank governor jointly signing the application.
It might not make headlines in the ECB’s headquarters in Frankfurt. But for Riga this is big news – its most important economic decision since it joined the European Union in 2004. Continue reading »
Estonia: path to growth via austerity defies eurozone doubters, and Krugman
Economic growth of 3 per cent in the eurozone? It sounds like a statistical error at a time when the common currency area is braced for a 0.4 per cent drop. But Estonia is set to record a 3 per cent expansion in 2012, nearly double the government’s forecast at the start of the year. And officials expect another 3 per cent in 2013.
Much of this is a rebound from the extra-severe shock that passed through Estonia and the other two Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania in 2009 when Estonian GDP dropped by a cumulative 18 per cent. Continue reading »
Hillary Clinton and Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics
Visiting Latvia on Thursday, Hillary Clinton praised the Baltic state for taking “very difficult” austerity measures that would ensure a “stable, prosperous future”.
But is the Baltic austerity model everything it’s cracked up to be? In this post on The World blog, Neil Buckley examines the case. Continue reading »
Latvia tops EU GDP growth league
There is life after austerity. Latvia on Thursday reported 6.8 per cent GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012, the fastest rate in the EU.
The small Baltic state suffered the worst recession in Europe, when GDP collapsed by by nearly 25 per cent in 2009-10. But a tough austerity programme has helped stabilise the economy, pave the way to recovery and put Latvia in a position to possibly join the euro. A lesson for Greece if ever there was one. Continue reading »
Latvia: carrying on regardless
The Latvian government is hell-bent on joining the eurozone by January 2014 even though the move is unpopular among its people. Well, the government will be cheered and the people perhaps dismayed after Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, promoted the country to investment grade on Wednesday and applauded the government’s progress. Continue reading »
Sberbank moves into the Baltic states
By Sergei Kuznetsov of business new europe
Sberbank, the Russian banking giant, is preparing to expand into the Baltic states, bne can reveal. In the first step, BPS-Sberbank, its Belarus operation, will open a subsidiary in Latvia. Continue reading »
Lithuania: not as bright as it seems
The mood turned sour again on European markets on Monday, as fresh worries about Greece rattled investors’ nerves. But that didn’t stop Lithuania getting a one-year bond auction away at a pretty impressive yield, on the day the country said its economy grew by a healthy 4.3 per cent last year.
Nevertheless, a glance behind the headline figures suggests that even where things look cheerful, investors should be cautious. Continue reading »
Latvia: another canary croaks
Latvia cancelled an auction of ten-year bonds on Tuesday after regulators suspended operations at Latvijas Krajbanka, a small bank owned by the troubled Snoras Bank of Lithuania, taken over by authorities last week.
So that’s two failed banks and a bond strike, soon after yields on Slovenia’s ten year bonds hit new highs. The smaller countries of peripheral Europe are beginning to look like canaries in coal mines. Continue reading »
CEE: more resilient than you think
As parts of the eurozone brace for a possible double-dip recession next year, the outlook for the emerging countries in central and eastern Europe looks a lot more resilient, according to a new report from Austria’s Erste Bank.
The key to the rosier outlook for the CEE region is that it looks to be a lot less vulnerable to external turbulence than was the case in 2008 and 2009. Continue reading »
CEE manufacturing takes a break – but not manufacturers
Manufacturing across central and eastern Europe is losing steam. Purchasing managers indices released on Monday added to the signs of slowing recovery, as the eurozone’s worries continue to spill over into neighbouring countries.
But while factory activity is shrinking, factory owners are still betting on a turnaround. Continue reading »
Crucial times for investors in Latvia
When Latvia’s then-president Valdis Zatlers called in May for a referendum to dissolve parliament, many thought he was committing political suicide.
Fast forward two months and Zatlers is firmly back in the political game, at the head of a new party. But the self-proclaimed progressive reformer’s resurgence has been accompanied by other developments that are unsettling investors. Continue reading »
CEE: don’t breathe easy yet
Panic over for CEE? Not quite. Equities in central and eastern Europe are down again on Monday, after a recovery last week, and the main central European currencies are again softening against the euro and Swiss Franc. Continue reading »
Eastern Europe: not so happy after all
Good news – on the face of it – for Greece. An extensive new survey by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development finds that east Europeans, though hit much harder than western counterparts by the financial crisis, emerged with their life satisfaction levels, overall, almost unscathed.
Drill down into the figures in the EBRD’s Life in Transition report, however, and they may not provide much reassurance to Greeks protesting against the austerity measures being voted on by their parliament. Continue reading »
| About this blog | Headlines email | Blog guide |
| Regulars | Series | Archive |
Older entries
Stefan Wagstyl
Rob Minto
Pan Kwan Yuk
Jonathan Wheatley
Heba Saleh