The Latvian government may impose a new surplus profit tax on individual banks as of 2025, Economy Minister Viktors Valainis has announced, LSM reports. The tax could be levied for two years. Valainis argued that the tax would incentivise banks to increase their lending significantly. Banks that increased their volume of lending could then be…
Latvia’s Riga International Airport (RIX) has begun drawing up a 40-year “master plan” and a strategic environmental impact assessment, LSM reports. RIX has contracted Spanish engineering and consultancy company Ineco and Latvian environmental engineering services company VentEko to develop the plan over the next 18 months. The master plan will include guidelines for the airport’s…
Swedish telecommunications group Telia Company plans to lay off 400 people in Lithuania, BNS reports. The company intends to lay off 200 employees at telecommunications operator Telia Lietuva and another 200 at its Vilnius-based competence centre, Telia Global Services Lithuania. The group will decentralise most of its operations, with decision-making moved to each country, as…
Latvia’s national air carrier, airBaltic, will open flights to several new destinations from the three Baltic capitals in summer 2025, including five from Tallinn, four from Riga, and seven from Vilnius, LRT reports. The company will offer flights from Tallinn to Tirana in Albania, to Hamburg in Germany, to Reykjavik in Iceland, and to Barcelona…
The cargo turnover of Latvian ports totalled 17.9mn tonnes in the first half of 2024, which was 11.4% less than in the same period of 2023, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LSM reports. The total volume of outgoing freight amounted to 13.5mn tonnes (up 2.3%) and incoming freight to 4.4mn tonnes (down…
The volume of freight carried by road increased in Latvia, while the volume of rail, sea, and air freight decreased in the first half of 2024, according to the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LSM reports. Freight carried by land transport totalled 40.9mn tonnes in six months, which was 2.0% less than a year earlier. Road freight…
The number of passengers using land and air transport increased in Latvia, while the number of ferry passengers declined in the first half of 2024, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LSM reports. Passengers using land transport totalled 94.7 million in six months, which was up 1.6% from the same period of 2023….
Sanctions have left Belarusians unable to claim imported cars at Lithuania’s Klaipeda State Seaport, LRT reports, citing local daily Vakaru Ekspresas. Belarusian media claimed that almost 4,000 cars bought by Belarusians from the US were stuck at the port. Vaidotas Sileika, chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Stevedoring Companies (LJKKA), confirmed that the information could…
The National Audit Office of Estonia (Riigikontroll) found significant errors in the 2023 state budget act despite the overall accuracy of the state’s financial accounts, ERR reports. Key issues included incorrect recording of transactions in the budgets of the ministries of economy, regional affairs, and agriculture, leading to a discrepancy of EUR 122mn. Additionally, the…
