Kazakhstan: Trade Ministry predicts significant rise in e-commerce in 2020

The Kazakh Trade Minister, Bakhyt Sultanov, emphasized the importance of development of e-commerce, especially during the pandemic. Addressing the reporting meeting with the population, Sultanov noted that Kazakhstan’s e-commerce market’s value approached 700 billion tenge last year. It is said to stand at 432 billion tenge following the results of the first half of 2020.…

Latvia: GDP to drop in 2020

Latvia’s GDP may decline by 7% this year, but if a second wave of COVID-19 comes, the country’s GDP may drop by 9%, as detailed in Finance Ministry’s macro-economic development scenario. The macro-economic scenario will be used as foundation for the state budget of 2021 and medium-term budget content in 2021-2023. The base scenario details…

Latvia: unemployment up in Q2 2020

In April-June, unemployment rate comprised 8.6%. Compared to the previous quarter, rate of unemployment has risen by 1.2%, but during a year – by 2.2%. In the result of Covid-19 crisis, the number of unemployed increased. In Q2, the number of unemployed persons aged 15-74 comprised 83.5 thousand, up by 22 thousand YoY and by…