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,…
Latvia’s central bank and the country’s Finance Ministry have both lowered their GDP growth forecasts and raised their inflation forecasts. Latvia’s GDP growth will drop to 2.0% in 2026, before rising to 2.4% in 2027 and 3.0% in 2028, according to the Bank of Latvia’s latest macroeconomic projection. In December 2025, the central bank had…
Every major party in Estonia has added to the state’s debt burden, according to Kaspar Oja, senior economist at the Bank of Estonia, ERR reported. While the biggest budget deficits emerged during the coronavirus pandemic, Estonia has had structural deficits every year since 2017, Oja noted. His analysis found that when in government, the Conservative…
Latvia’s central bank, the Bank of Latvia, has lowered its GDP forecast for 2026-2028 markedly, LSM reports. GDP growth will amount to 2.0% in 2026, to 2.4% in 2027, and to 3.0% in 2028, according to the latest forecast. In December 2025, the central bank had projected that the GDP would grow by 2.8% in…
Latvia’s GDP growth will fall from 2.1% in 2025 to 1.9% in 2026, before rising to 2.2% in 2027, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts, LSM reports. Average annual inflation will decline from 3.8% in 2025 to 3.6% in 2026 and 3.2% in 2027, the OECD projects in its latest survey of…
Estonia’s Finance Minister, Jürgen Ligi, vowed to defend budget discipline and push back against populist spending proposals ahead of the parliamentary elections in March 2027, ERR reported. Ligi said that the country’s political culture had deteriorated badly, and acknowledged that populism had crept into his own Estonian Reform Party as well. He insisted on the…
The European Commission has approved an additional EUR 153mn in funding for Lithuania under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), BNS reports. The funds are due to be disbursed in July 2026. So far, Lithuania has received EUR 2.69bn under its national recovery plan. Lithuania will submit its final RRF payment request in September…
The Estonian government has issued EUR 1bn worth of bonds to cover the state budget deficit and to provide more liquidity, ERR reports. The bonds mature in May 2036 and carry a yield to maturity of 3.609%. More than 100 investors, mostly banks, pension funds, and European investment funds, subscribed to over EUR 2.2bn in…
Estonia’s exports of goods totalled nearly EUR 1.5bn in February 2026, which was down 1% from the same period of 2025, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Imports of goods totalled nearly EUR 1.9bn, which was up 6% over a year. Estonia’s monthly trade deficit thus amounted to EUR 426mn, which was EUR…
