The Latvian and Estonian economies have recently experienced – an economic boom, a spectacular bust, and recovery. Their experience is a chance to evaluate the merits of fixed exchange rates, austerity and the issues of an economy based on trade and capital inflows.
Aspects of the Baltic economies
- Boom period between 2000 and 2007
- Great recession of 2008-2010
- Readjustment policies of fiscal contraction whilst maintaining fixed exchange rate.
- Economic recovery from 2011
Lessons from the boom
Both Latvia and Estonia experienced rapid economic growth in the early 2000s. This was helped by various policies and economic factors
- Free market reforms enabled growth of efficiency and productivity. From 1991, the economies became more market oriented with policies of privatisation and deregulation, enabling greater incentives to be efficient.
- Latvia and Estonia are both small, open economies where free trade has contributed towards economic growth. In Latvia, exports account for 33% of GDP, including raw materials, such as timber, agriculture and manufacturing products.
- The open nature of the economy attracted significant capital inflows from Europe. These capital inflows helped to finance a growing current account deficit, which reached 20% of GDP in Latvia and 16% of GPD in Estonia.
Source: Latvia report, EU
Record levels of economic growth in Latvia, led to a corresponding rise in the current account deficit.