Crisis, Economics, EU – Baltic States, Latvia

Valdis Zatlers

In his blog, Zatlers writes that Latvia has implemented a successful economic recovery program, despite the many skeptics that have come up with a number of reasons why the program would fail.

''The year 2010 will prove those skeptics wrong because the program is clearly based on commitment to the necessary economic reforms, reliability of Latvia as an investment destination and resilience of the Latvian economy and people,'' Zatlers says.

The Latvian President also admits that the past year has been difficult, and that painful, but necessary reforms—in public administration, health care, and education—were carried out in Latvia.

However, Zatlers expresses confidence that ''Latvia will show positive quarter-on-quarter GDP growth in the second half of 2010, which will not be based on credit-driven domestic demand, but on exports that will become the main engine for economic growth generation in the next few years.''

''Latvia has not wasted opportunities provided by the crisis, but used them to become a more business-friendly, export-oriented, and competitive economy,'' the president writes.

''I am proud that my country has been able to withstand the sizeable adjustment and to learn from it, apply corrective measures to its economy and move on. Latvia has demonstrated that with rigorous self-discipline it is not only possible to overcome the crisis, but also take advantage of it to lay foundations to a thriving economy. It has been a tough ride, but lessons have been learned and applied for future benefits,'' Zatlers ended in his blog.