The Latvian government is unlikely to satisfy the Health Ministry’s request for EUR 153.3mn of additional funding for hospitals in the 2025 state budget, LSM reports. Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri said that the money was needed for human resources, medicines, infrastructure, emergency services, digitalisation, and data security. However, the government has listed external and…
Producer prices in Latvian industry declined by 2.6% in August 2024, compared to the same period of 2023, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LSM reports. Prices declined by 12.7% in energy supply, 1.4% in mining and quarrying, and 0.6% in manufacturing, but increased by 5.3% in water supply and waste management….
Latvia had a total of 64,900 unemployed people in August 2024, which was 3,500 more than in the same period of 2023, according to the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LETA reports. Compared to July 2024, the number of unemployed rose by 100 people. Latvia’s actual unemployment rate stood at 6.8% in August 2024, which was…
Estonia’s producer price index of industrial output (PPI) rose by 1.7% in August 2024, compared to the same period of 2023, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Producer prices rose by on year 1.4% in manufacturing but fell by 1.9% in the production of food products. Compared to July 2024, the PPI rose…
The Estonian government has agreed on switching to need-based social benefits in 2028, Education Minister Kristina Kallas announced, BNS reports. She argued that the state and taxpayers could no longer afford distributing equal support to everyone, and that doing so was not even necessary. Better data would allow the state to provide better personalised services, Kallas…
The lowest level of material and social deprivation in the Baltic States was in Estonia in 2023, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. Estonia had altogether around 31,000 people who were suffering from severe material and social deprivation in 2023, which was down from 40,000 in 2022. The number stood at 108,000 (135,000) in Latvia…
The three Baltic States have granted temporary protection to altogether 158,985 Ukrainian nationals fleeing the war, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. Lithuania had granted temporary protection to 79,085 Ukrainian refugees at the end of July 2024, compared to 46,080 in Latvia and 33,820 in Estonia. The share of Ukrainian refugees in relation to the…
A total of 544,800 households in Estonia, or 92.9% of all households, have used the internet in 2024, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. The most common services used on the internet are online banking (90.4%) and email (89.7%). Another 88% of people use the internet to look for information about products or…
Lithuania had the highest suicide rate in the Baltic States in 2021, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. Lithuania had 19.5 deaths by suicide per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021, which was the second-highest rate in the entire EU. The suicide rate stood at 14.01 in Estonia and 13.38 in Latvia. All three Baltic States thus…