The European Commission has approved Riga’s tramway infrastructure development project. As part of this project, it is planned to build the 3.5 km Skanstes tramline, which will cost EUR 97.4 million, as reported by Rigas satiksme representative Viktors Zakis. The project involves the construction of a 3.6-km tramline on Pernavas Street – Sencu Street –…
Pressure on the increase of costs in the next several years will be enormous, and there are worries about the government’s ability to withstand that, said Fiscal Discipline Council’s member Andzs Ubelis. According to him, the government’s recently approved outlook on economic growth this year of 3.7% is realistic and satisfactory. Latvia’s economy is expected…
Poor households will gain very little from the recently approved tax reform. There is a large number of unemployed people, which will not the change with PIT, according to results of a study performed by Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and economic policy research center Biceps. At the same time, the reform does not…
Baltic Association – Transport and Logisics President Inga Antane describes the situation with Latvia’s transit industry as tragic. Cargo volume decline has been continuing since 2012. Antane also mentions that, looking at the recent past, 2016 was one of the worst in Latvia’s transit history. It should be added that from April onward there was…
The total proportion of grey economy in Latvia’s fishing industry may be around 40%, says fish processing company Brivais vilnis chairman Arnolds Babris. “I think its presence in the fishing industry is roughly the same as it is in the country – around 40%,” said Babris. He admits there are companies in the industry, which…
Overall, Latvian consumers are satisfied with the purchases they make on Internet stores. 65.3% of respondents believe Internet stores are safe and reliable. 44.7% of respondents say they have never had any problems when shopping on the Internet, according to results of a survey performed by Gudriem.lv. People who have had problems often mention two…
The current market situation shows that Latvia should speed up its education reform and think about attracting additional human resources from other countries, said Latvian Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola. “We have a number of problems. We see unemployment is in decline, dropping to 7.2% in the past three years, whereas the number of employed people…