Lithuania is making progress towards normalising relations with communist China, Juozas Olekas, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, said, BNS reports. Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that Lithuania’s position on China remained unchanged, stressing the need for a unified European approach as part of the EU’s common foreign and security policy. He warned that…
Estonia’s annual inflation may drop below 4% in 2026, the Ministry of Finance forecasts, ERR reports. Kristjan Pungas, economic analyst at the ministry’s fiscal policy department, linked the projection to the easing of the conflict in the Middle East. He noted that Estonia’s inflation rate was one of the lowest in the eurozone in June…
Over a quarter of people in the Baltic States could not afford one week of annual holiday travel away from home in 2025, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. In Lithuania, 30.9% of residents could not afford one week of holiday travel in 2025, which was down from 32.2% in 2024. The corresponding share was…
Estonia’s GDP rose by 2.1% in the second quarter of 2026, compared to the same period of 2025, according to Statistics Estonia’s flash estimate, ERR reported. Compared to the first quarter of 2026, the seasonally and working-day adjusted GDP rose by 0.4%. Tõnu Mertsina, chief economist at Swedbank, said that current estimates showed that Estonia’s…
Around 5,000 third‑country nationals come to Estonia every year for seasonal work, mostly on farms, according to the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), ERR reports. Most seasonal workers come from Ukraine, Moldova, Uzbekistan, India, and Georgia. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many seasonal workers came from Belarus as well, but Estonia has since…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has proposed stricter rules on migration, BNS reports. Under the proposal, labour migrants would be required to leave Lithuania for at least six months after every two years of work. Also, the labour migrant quota would include not only new migrants but also those already in Lithuania. Skirmantas Bikelis, senior research…
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys criticised concessions to Russia in the EU’s latest sanctions package, BNS reported. He lamented that EU sanctions policy decisions were “increasingly driven by the economic interests of member states,” limiting the EU’s ability to increase pressure on Russia and weakening the impact of sanctions overall. Earlier, Lithuania’s EU ambassador, Nerijus…
Latvia’s National Alliance has proposed merging three ministries into a new Ministry of National Economy, LETA reports. Under the proposal, the new ministry would take over the functions of the current Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Climate and Energy, and Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development. Energy Minister Janis Vitenbergs of the National Alliance…
Lithuania’s budget deficit was the smallest in the Baltic States in the first quarter of 2026, according to Eurostat data, BNS reported. Lithuania’s budget deficit stood at 0.9% of GDP, which was down from 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Estonia’s budget deficit amounted 1.2% (1.3%) and Latvia’s to 1.9% (2.4%) of GDP. Meanwhile,…
