The outlook for the development of Latvia’s economy is generally optimistic, said the governor of the Bank of Latvia Martins Kazaks on June 14.
“He also said that, considering the economy’s recovery, the state might cease providing the mass aid to the national economy in June. At the same time, state aid may remain for certain sectors of the national economy, such as tourism.
“It may be possible to assist certain sectors. But not as expansively as before,” said the governor of the Bank of Latvia.
Kazaks stresses the Covid-19 pandemic is not over yet. He adds there is no reason to relax – there is a lot of work left to do. This includes putting efforts into making sure children are able to return to school in autumn.
The governor of the Bank of Latvia also admits that Latvia has suffered slightly worse than Lithuania and Estonia in the Covid-19 crisis. This is mostly because of the structure of the economy.
“We had a bigger emphasis on air traffic and transit, so Latvia was hit harder. At the same time, there weren’t many major differences as to the severity of the impact left by the crisis,” said Kazaks.
He also mentioned that in the last ten years both Lithuania and Estonia had grown more than Latvia.
“We will not catch up with Lithuania and Estonia by simply spending more money,” said Kazaks, adding that it was important to improve the quality of Latvia’s labor market by offering residents training options, perform an administrative reform, improve the school network and do other important tasks.
“All structural topics talks about before remain important. If we want to become well-off economy, we will not accomplish much without smarter money spending and an economy of higher quality,” stressed Kazaks. (BNN/Business World Magazine)
