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…
The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, has approved the programme of incoming Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius’s coalition government, BNS reported. Altogether 72 MPs voted for, 29 against, and 4 abstained. After the vote, the government’s ministers were officially sworn in to their posts. The new coalition includes Sinkevicius’s Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, the Union of…
China appears open to talks on normalising diplomatic relations with Lithuania, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Lithuanian parliament, Remigijus Motuzas of the ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), stated, BNS reports. Speaking after a briefing by Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys, Motuzas said that China was “inclined to meet, communicate, and negotiate”…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has officially nominated Mindaugas Sinkevicius, chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP), for prime minister, BNS reports. The parliament, the Seimas, will vote on the nomination on 30 June 2026, after which Sinkevicius will have 15 days to present his new cabinet and government programme for parliamentary approval. Sinkevicius…
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…
Hourly labour costs in the Baltic States rose the fastest in Lithuania in the first quarter of 2026, according to Eurostat data, ELTA reported. Nominal hourly labour costs in the whole economy rose by 8.6% in Lithuania, 6.2% in Estonia, and 2.3% in Latvia from the first quarter of 2025. Hourly wage costs alone went…
Estonia’s state-owned transmission system operator, Elering, plans to build new undersea electricity interconnections with Finland and Latvia by 2040, ERR reports. Priit Heinla, head of offshore grid development at Elering, said that investment decisions on the two projects could be made in 2031-2033. Elering expects electricity prices to remain lower in the Nordic countries. Therefore,…
The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has approved amendments extending a reduced excise tax rate on diesel fuel until the end of 2026, LSM reports. The diesel tax was lowered from EUR 467 to EUR 396 per 1,000 litres and for marked diesel fuel used in agriculture from EUR 70 to EUR 21 per 1,000 litres…
