Lithuanian commercial banks and other credit institutions are due to pay a total of over EUR 50mn in temporary solidarity tax by 31 August 2023, BNS reports. Banks will have to pay the full tax for 2023 by 15 June 2024. The tax is calculated based on net interest income that exceeds the average income…
Latvia’s average gross monthly wage amounted to EUR 1,525 in the second quarter of 2023, which was up 12.0% from the same period of 2022, according to the Central Statistical Bureau’s working-day and seasonally non-adjusted data, LSM reports. Average wages rose by 12.2% in the public sector and by 11.9% in the private sector over…
Estonia’s GDP totalled EUR 9.42bn at current prices in the the second quarter of 2023, which was up 5.1% from the same period of 2022, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Real GDP fell by 2.9% over a year, however. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, seasonally adjusted real GDP decreased by…
Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry has invited the Vatican’s representative in Lithuania for a conversation after Pope Francis gave statements praising Russia, BNS reports. Speaking online to a group of Catholic Russians in St Petersburg, Pope Francis said that they were “heirs of the great Mother Russia” and of an “empire of great culture and great humanity.”…
Estonia’s average monthly gross salary amounted to EUR 1,873 in the second quarter of 2023, which was up 12.4% from the same period of 2022, according to data from Statistics Estonia, The Baltic Guide reported. The highest average salaries were in information and communication (EUR 3,257), finance and insurance (EUR 2,953), and energy supply (EUR…
Latvia’s national air carrier, airBaltic, will open flights on eleven new routes in May 2024, including seven from Latvia, two from Estonia, and two from Lithuania, BNS reports. The company will open flights from Riga to Alicante, Chisinau, Ljubljana, Pristina, Skopje, Sofia, and Tirana. Also, airBaltic will open flights from Tallinn to Billund in Denmark…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda will make efforts to ensure that Germany’s brigade is deployed to Lithuania by 2026, according to his chief foreign policy adviser, Asta Skaisgiryte, BNS reports. Germany’s chief of defence, General Carsten Breuer, said that Germany would begin deploying the brigade in early 2024. Nauseda met with Breuer in Vilnius to discuss…
Estonia’s GDP will decline by 1.8% in 2023 and grow by 1.5% in 2024, according to SEB Bank’s latest forecast, ERR reports. The average unemployment rate will reach 6.5% in 2023 and 6.9% in 2024, the bank projects. Mihkel Nestor, chief economist at SEB, noted that the outlook for the Estonian economy has deteriorated in…
Latvia’s United List has rejected an offer from prime minister-designate Evika Silina to form a four-party coalition government with New Unity, the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS), and the Progressives, LSM reports. Edgars Tavars, head of the United List’s parliamentary group, said that his group would propose another coalition model instead, with Silina still…