Lithuania’s real GDP totalled EUR 84bn at current prices in 2025, which was up 2.7% from 2024, according to seasonally and calendar-adjusted data from the State Data Agency (VDA), BNS reported. According to unadjusted data, the country’s GDP rose by 2.8% on year. Gross value added grew by 3.2% in industry, 3% in services, 2.1%…
Estonia’s GDP totalled EUR 39.848bn in 2024, which was up 3.9% from EUR 38.353bn in 2023, according to fresh data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. GDP per capita amounted to EUR 29,036, which was up EUR 1,047 from 2023. The service sector accounted for a record high of 75% of total value added in the…
The Estonian Agriculture and Food Board (PTA) will end the African swine fever (ASF) emergency situation, PTA director general Raimo Heinam announced, ERR reports. He said that all pigs at farms hit by ASF have been culled and initial disinfection has been completed. Efforts to control the disease and to improve biosecurity procedures will continue,…
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has expressed “grave alarm” at the decision of the three Baltic States, Finland, Poland, and Ukraine, to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines, BNS reported. Türk stressed that the international convention, which has over 160 state parties, was a crucial tool in “responding to…
Lithuania should not support the ratification of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement, Lithuania’s Agriculture Minister, Ignas Hofmanas, stated, Baltic News Network reports. Speaking in an interview with LRT, Hofmanas insisted that Lithuania should wait for the European Commission’s “detailed explanation” of the free trade agreement. Earlier, the rural affairs committee of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas,…
Estonia’s Minister of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, Piret Hartman, is visiting India to promote bilateral trade, BNS reports. She is accompanied by a business delegation of several leading Estonian food and beverage companies. Hartman noted that Estonia was already exporting cheese to India, but suggested that there was also potential for exporting other dairy products,…
The leader of Lithuania’s far-right Dawn of Nemunas party, Remigijus Zemaitaitis, announced that his party was likely to nominate Virginijus Kulikauskas, former head of the Lithuanian Prison Service, to the position of justice minister, ELTA reports. Earlier, former justice minister, lawyer Gintautas Bartkus declined the party’s nomination to the ministerial post. Meanwhile, President Gitanas Nauseda…
The Latvian government should keep the VAT rate on locally grown fresh fruit, berries, and vegetables reduced at 12% in the coming years as well, Agriculture Minister Armands Krauze stated, BNS reports. The minister said that he would insist on maintaining the reduced VAT rate. Moreover, he argued that the lower rate should be applied…
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…