Lithuania’s Economy Minister, Ausrine Armonaite, rejected the idea of introducing new taxes to fund increased defence spending, BNS reports. Speaking in an interview with Ziniu Radijas, Armonaite insisted that additional money for defence should come from borrowed funds or through economic growth instead. Also, the government should use unused funds of state institutions, she said….
Lithuania plans to allocate more than 3% of its GDP to defence, President Gitanas Nauseda announced, BNS reports. Speaking during a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Nauseda said that Lithuania would follow Poland’s example of raising defence spending. Also, he said that the two countries would soon begin training Ukrainian…
Raising Estonia’s defence spending to 5% of GDP would be unfeasible, Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi stated, ERR reports. Earlier, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur suggested that NATO’s new defence plans meant that Estonia would have to raise its defence budget from the current 3% of GDP to somewhere less than 5% over a period of 20…
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…
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…
The Estonian government will impose a lower ceiling on parental benefits and a cap on sickness benefits as of 2026, ERR reports. The government will reduce the maximum rate for parental benefits from the current three times the average wage to twice the average wage. The cut will affect around 3,500 people annually, or about…
Estonia may need to raise its defence spending to 5% of GDP to implement NATO’s new defence plans, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur stated, ERR reports. He said that Estonia clearly needed to acquire more capabilities, including air defence systems and equipment to deal with chemical and biological weapons. The money needed would amount to EUR…
Lithuania’s GDP growth will amount to 2.4% in 2024 and 2.6% in 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest forecast, BNS reports. The country’s economic growth will be driven by the growth of real wages, public investments, and low inflation, the IMF report states. Average annual inflation will reach 1.2% in 2024, the…
Estonia’s three-party coalition of the Estonian Reform Party, Social Democratic Party (SDE), and Estonia 200 has published its new coalition agreement, ERR reports. Under the agreement, the coalition pledges to cut the budget deficit to 3% of GDP in 2025 and 2026, and to reduce it further in 2027. The new government will raise most…