Budget, Crisis, Financial Services, GDP, Latvia

The minister indicated that, given the current crisis, Latvia's debt is expected to expand to 52% of GDP, but as the economy starts growing again, the debt should contract to 40-45% of GDP within four to five years. 

"As the state of the economy improves, the proportion of the debt will reduce, so we project the debt to return to 40-45% in a foreseeable future - in four to five years," said Reirs. 

The minister also said that this year's budget will not be revised, because spending cuts would reduce the amount of services that are being provided to the public, but it is the weakness of demand that is causing the current crisis. 

"We will not be revising the budget... The largest items of budget expenditure include healthcare, education, law enforcement and the military. By reducing these expenses we would reduce the amount of services. We will not do that, so there will be no budget revision," the finance minister said.