Analytics, Baltic, Economics, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, GDP

"From a long-term perspective, the convergence performance of the Baltic states has been remarkable. The Baltic states are among the few euro area countries (along with Slovakia), in which real GDP per capita in purchasing power standard (PPS) terms has shown substantial convergence towards the EU average over the last 20 years," reads the report.

According to the data provided by ECB, the 1999-2015 growth of the GDP per capita was nearly 15% above target in Estonia, nearly 10% in Lithuania and about 7.5% in Latvia. The aggregate growth of GDP per capita for all three Baltic nations was about 11% more than projected.

"The long-term convergence performance of the Baltic States has exceeded what would have been expected based on their initial income level. (…) Looking forward, the Baltic states are faced with a number of economic challenges. These include the following: preserving competitiveness against the backdrop of a strong increase in wages and slowing productivity growth, avoiding the 'middle income trap' and managing a volatile business cycle inside EMU," ECB said in its report.

Regardless of exceeding the forecasts of GDP growth per capita, the Baltic GDP per capita stood at merely 66.5% of the European Union average in 2015. When the three nations joined the EU in 2004, the index was at 44%.