Banks, Estonia, Financial Services, Latvia

Ivari Padar.

"At the end of the last year, the government of Latvia had no other options. In politics, there are moments when the choice is between a bad and a very bad decision, and this was exactly such a situation. What needs to be taken into consideration is that collapse of Parex banka would have very grave consequences for the banking sector in all the Baltic region. The government of Latvia made a very responsible decision to bail out Parex banka," the Estonian politician points out.

At the point when the Latvian government decided to take over Parex banka, the Baltic States and Scandinavian countries realized that they have to support one another in overcoming economic difficulties, because problems such as collapse of Parex banka could create a domino effect that would affect not only Latvia.

"When Latvia launched talks with the International Monetary Fund, representatives of the government of Sweden also became actively involved in the talks process, stressing that Latvia cannot follow the example of Argentina and devalue its currency. Therefore, together with Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, we are ready to lend money for stabilization of the Latvian economy," said Padar.