On September 23, Latvian Saeima rejected a proposal submitted by opposition members to reduce VAT for sectors of the economy impacted the most by the Covid-19 crisis from 21% to 5%. The parliament reviewed amendments to the Value Added Tax Law submitted by the political party Republika Saeima. In the end amendments were rejected. Saeima…
In August, actual unemployment rate comprised 6.9%, down by 0.6% MoM. The actual unemployment rate in the country has not been this low since December 2019 (6.6%). The unemployment rate for females decreased by 0.4%, to 5.7% in August, and for males by 0.7%, to 8.1%, according to Data of the Labor Force Survey conducted…
In Latvia, every citizen and permanent resident has to have the right to open a bank account, otherwise one of a person’s democratic freedoms is not respected, says Saeima opposition legislator Janis Urbanovics. According to him, since the Latvian financial sector control institutions and procedures have experienced a far-reaching reform to phase out money laundering…
In January-August, the Freeport of Riga handled 13.27 million tons of cargo, down by 16.3% YoY. According to the port’s statistics, handing of grain increased by 27%, to 1,639,800 tons, wood pellets – by 1.5%, to 1,441,700 tons, sawn timber – by 77%, to 371,300 tons, and timber – by 28.7%, to 1,844,600 tons, while…
Cargo traffic at the Port of Liepaja in January-August increased by 8.6% YoY and totaled 4.34 million tons, the Liepaja Port Authority statistics showed. Eight-month volume of grain rose by 1.8%, to 1.57 million tons, anthracite volume sank by 87.4%, to 28,800 tons, handling of building materials declined by 0.8%, to 489,000 tons, and oil…
Shoes became expensive in Latvia in a year-on-year inflation comparison in August, which showed the general inflation at 3.7%. According to a press release of the Latvian Central Statistical Bureau, the greatest pressure on the average price level changes in August 2021 compared to August 2020 was put by the rise in prices of goods…
In central Latvia, the Kekava Municipality has banned organizing gambling in its territory set up in 2021, as part of the administrative and territorial reform. From now on, the 27 thousand people living in the 454-square-kilometer territory will not have on-site gambling services available to them. The Kekava Municipality passed the decision to ban organizing…