Baltic, Budget, Economics, Financial Services, GDP

When asked to compare the economic growth in all three Baltic states, he said that each of the countries had own strengths and weaknesses but, as regards fiscal responsibility, Lithuania and Estonia have achieved better results in balancing their budgets.

Platais said that the Finance Ministry's forecasts for GDP growth in 2018 and 2019 were realistic and Latvia could show a 4 percent economic growth this year. There are several factors driving the economic growth, including good global economic situation and active implementation of the EU funds.

But he warned that already there were signs of economic overheating, although no drastic countermeasures were needed at the moment.

The Latvian Finance Ministry in its latest macroeconomic forecasts expects the Latvian economy to grow 4 percent in 2018, 3.4 percent in 2019, and 3 percent in 2020-2021. Compared to the previous forecasts on which the 2018 budget was based, GDP growth forecast for 2018 has been raised by 0.6 percentage points, and the forecast for 2019 by 0.2 percentage points.