Economies of Baltic Countries

The purpose of this report is to provide data about the economy of Baltic states in general and each country separately.

The report is divided in four parts: Economy of Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

The economy of Baltic states.

After year 2000, the Baltic States economies implemented important economic reforms and liberalisation, which, together with their fairly low-wage and skilled labour force, attracted large amounts of foreign investment. Between 2000 and 2007, the Baltic States ( often called the Baltic Tiger ) had the highest growth rates in Europe.

For example, Estonian gross domestic product grew by 11.2% , while Latvian grew by 11.9% and Lithuanian by 7.5%. All three countries by February 2006 saw their rates of unemployment falling below average EU values. Additionally, Estonia is among the ten most liberal economies in the world and in 2006 switched from being classified as an upper-middle income economy to a high-income economy by the World Bank. All three countries joined the European Union in May 2004. Estonia has joined Eurozone in January 2011 whilst Latvia and Lithuania do not have a specified date, but are predicted to do the same in the following years.

Allthough Estonia has so far succeeded on keeping its debt-levels one of the lowest in European Union, the southern Baltic states are in a more difficult situation. For instance, the Latvian government has responded to EU and IMF pressure by taking on private debt. Latvia accepted 7.5 billion euro EU-IMF loan.

The GDP growth rate of three Baltic countries:

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Latvia 10.6% 12.2% 10.0%