A speaker once compared Latvia with a child – very small in the beginning of the 1990’s, created an opinion of what the world is like and eventually developed into an independent personality with its own will. If this is true, Latvia would be an adolescent today. This is the age where you live dangerously with a strong belief that nothing bad can happen. Like other former Soviet economies, Latvia has experienced a fantastic and quick growth. It has got used to an increasing curve – from an increase in GNP as well as in salaries and prices. However, currently things are a bit shaky; the inflation is high and the EU integration together with the introduction of the Euro has been postponed several times. These are new challenges and very unfamiliar to politicians used to seeing the economies develop in only one direction.
But what about in ten years? The actual rate of change will most certainly not be as high in the future. The growth curves are levelling out and will eventually increase but not with the same precipitous rise as before.
In ten years, Latvia will most likely abandon their national currency, Lat, and be part of the Euro zone. The growing middle class will be established; good education and health care for everyone will be a matter of course. The economy will continue to be dynamic and liberal which is positive for business, both local and foreign.
The flow of trade and investments with neighbouring countries like Sweden will continue to develop, partly because of the geographic vicinity but also because of a larger integration of the Baltic region into the EU. However, there are common challenges like the supply of energy to deal with – challenges where everybody will benefit from cooperating.