Latvia’s timber industry exports totalled EUR 1.4bn in the first five months of 2023, which was down more than 20% from nearly EUR 1.9bn in the same period of 2022, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, LSM reports. Exports of wood and wood products amounted to EUR 1.3bn (down 20%), sawn timber to…
Estonia’s producer price index (PPI) of industrial output fell by 1.9% on year in June 2023, according to Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Compared to May 2023, the PPI dropped by 0.4%. The biggest impact on the index came from a fall in the price of electricity production and in the manufacture of wood products and…
Estonia’s Minister of Defence, Hanno Pevkur, has approved a defence plan for 2024-2027 to increase the country’s military capabilities and defence forces, ERR reports. Pevkur said that Estonia would acquire “significantly more and better weapons, ammunition, and equipment,” as well as invest in people and infrastructure. The defence plans include investments in the Ämari Air…
South Korea will open an embassy in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced, Yonhap reports. Lithuania opened an embassy in Seoul in 2021. Yoon met with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on 12 July 2023 on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius. Yoon called for expanding cooperation with Lithuania, particularly…
The threat from Russia is and will remain real, and all NATO allies must understand and take it “extremely seriously,” Estonia’s Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, stated, The Baltic Times reports. Speaking at the opening debate of a NATO conference in Vilnius, Kallas noted that all allies contributed 2% of GDP to defence in 1988 because…
Estonia’s industrial production output declined by 12.7% at constant prices in May 2023, compared to the same period of 2022, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Output fell by 31.5% in electricity production and 13.1% in manufacturing. Meanwhile, output rose by 36.3% in mining and quarrying. Helle Bunder, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia,…
Latvia’s industrial production output declined by 8.8% in May 2023 compared to a year earlier, according to calendar-adjusted data at constant prices, data from the Central Statistical Bureau showed, LSM reports. Output dropped by 7.7% in manufacturing, 7.9% in mining and quarrying, and 15.3% in electricity and gas supply. Compared to April 2023, industrial production…
Costs associated with forest restoration, maintenance, and logging increased in Latvia in 2022, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau, LSM reports. The average cost of forest restoration amounted to EUR 792-931 per hectare, which was up 2.5-12.4% from EUR 742-890 per hectare in 2021. The average cost of logging operations rose by 31.0%…