Latvia’s Ministry of Finance has outlined its provisional plan for passing the 2025 state budget, LSM reports. Under the plan, the Finance Ministry will discuss budget goals with other ministries over March 2024 and submit stability programmes for 2024-2028 to the government, the parliament, and the European Commission for approval on 30 April 2024. The…
The Estonian government has failed to include a project to open a regular passenger train connection between Tartu and the Latvian capital, Riga, in its long-term budget plans for 2025-2027, ERR reports. The government points to concerns about a competing Latvian proposal that would entail lower costs but less convenient departure times. Nevertheless, the government…
Lithuanian banks and credit institutions paid around EUR 256mn in temporary solidarity tax in 2023, according to the Bank of Lithuania, BNS reported. The central bank estimates that revenue from the solidarity tax could amount to around EUR 190mn in 2024. The government will use the proceeds from the bank tax to pay for military…
Latvia’s tax revenue totalled EUR 13.414bn in 2023, which was EUR 1.188bn (9.7%) less than in 2022, according to the Finance Ministry, LETA reports. Annual tax revenue was 2.7% more than the EUR 13.058bn planned. General government tax revenue reached 2.9% above target at EUR 12.639bn, including EUR 10.514bn of state budget revenue (2.3%) and…
International rating agency Moody’s has reaffirmed Latvia’s credit rating at A3 with a stable outlook, LSM reported. The agency noted the stability of Latvia’s public finances and general government debt. Moody’s expects the general government deficit to be around 2.9% of GDP in 2024 and to gradually decline to 2.6% in 2025 and to 1.7%…
The Estonian Educational Personnel Union (EHL) has ended a nationwide strike of teachers and accepted the government’s proposal allocating an additional EUR 5.7mn to raise teacher salaries in 2024, ERR reports. Under the agreement, the minimum salary for general education teachers will rise by EUR 17 to EUR 1,820 per month. Also, collective negotiations will…
Members of the supervisory council of Latvia’s state-owned passenger train operator, Pasazieru Vilciens (Vivi), have resigned, LSM reports. The company has come under heavy criticism because of recurring problems with new electric trains delivered by the Czech manufacturer, Skoda Vagonka. Vivi’s council chairman, Sandis Steins, insisted that responsibility for the problems was beyond the council’s…
Building unified Baltic defence infrastructure should be coordinated with Finnish and Polish military experts, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics stated, LETA reports. Baltic cooperation with Finland and Poland was necessary to create an effective defence mechanism, he said. At the same time, Rinkevics reminded that Latvia was part of NATO’s defence planning. He discussed the issue…
Lithuania’s State Defence Council (VGT) has agreed to buy German-made Leopard 2 tanks for a planned new army division, Kestutis Budrys, chief national security adviser to President Gitanas Nauseda, announced, BNS reports. The council tasked the Defence Ministry to begin negotiations with German manufacturers and other countries interested in procuring the equipment. Also, the council…