The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has passed a law on the establishment of a new national concert hall, the Riga Philharmonic, LETA reports. The law designates the concert hall with the status of an object of national interest. The plan is to build the concert hall by reconstructing and expanding the Riga Congress Centre. The…
The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has extended a ban on the import of agricultural and animal feed products from Russia and Belarus until 1 July 2027, LSM reports. Latvia banned the import of certain agricultural products from the two aggressor states in March 2024. The ban applies to products originating from Russia or Belarus that…
Drivers of motor vehicles in Latvia paid altogether EUR 8.5mn in traffic fines in 2025, according to the country’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD), LSM reports. The most violations were registered on the A8 and A1 highways and on Juglas Street in Riga. CSDD’s 100 stationary speed cameras record an average of 200,000 speeding violations…
Latvia’s populist opposition party, Latvia First (LPV), remains the country’s most popular political party, according to a new SKDS poll done in March 2026 for LTV, LSM reports. LPV now has the support of 8.9% of voters, which is up from 8.6% in the previous poll in November 2025. The ruling coalition’s Progressives comes in…
Latvia has recorded the country’s first outbreak of measles since 2018, according to the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (SPKC), LETA reports. SPKC has so far registered 36 cases, most of them children, and the number of cases continues to rise, LETA reports. Many of the infected children are students at Riga Waldorf School,…
Several Ukrainian strike drones have crashed in the three Baltic States and Finland as Ukraine is attacking Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure, Baltic News and YLE reported. The drones are targeting oil and gas terminals and other infrastructure at Russia’s ports on the Gulf of Finland and the Kirishi oil refinery. One of the stray…
The Latvian government has proposed granting a short-term loan of EUR 30mn to the national air carrier, airBaltic, due to the rapid rise in fuel prices, LSM reports. Speaking in an interview with LTV, Prime Minister Evika Silina admitted that the company may need more state support later, however. Earlier, airBaltic estimated that it would…
Companies in the Baltic States issued an all-time record of EUR 6.68bn in bonds in 2025, which was an increase of more than double from 2024, The Baltic Times reported. The volume of local bonds issued totalled EUR 1.37bn, which was up 42% over a year. The number of Baltic companies issuing bonds reached a…
Latvia’s foreign trade turnover totalled EUR 42.73bn in 2025, which was up EUR 2,198.7mn (5.4%) from 2024 at current prices, according to provisional data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LSM reports. The total value of exported goods amounted to EUR 19.54bn, which was up EUR 698.1mn (3.7%) from 2024. The value of goods imported…