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Economic Turmoil in Latvia

Satisfactory Essays

Case Study 5

Economic Turmoil in Latvia

September 11, 2014

General Description and Central Issue of the Case
The Republic Latvia is a country of 24,938 square miles on the Baltic Sea, with 310 miles of shoreline. The country shares borders with Lithuania, Belarus, Estonia, and Russia. Latvia, Lithuania, and Belarus are three Baltic States that gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union (Hill, 2013). Latvia declared independence on May 4, 1990. The population of Latvia is 2,165,165 with an ethnic makeup of Latvian 61.1%, Russian 26.2%, Belarusian 3.5%, Ukrainian 2.3%, Polish 2.2%, Lithuanian 1.3%, other 3.4% (CIA, 2014). Natural resources include peat, limestone, dolomite, amber, hydropower, timber, and arable …show more content…

dollars. Currency speculators were adding pressure to the situation by gambling that Latvia would devalue the currency and have to sell the Lats short. The Latvian central banks were forced to enter the foreign currency exchange market and buy Lats to bolster the currency peg against the Euro. In two months’ time the country had gone through 20% of their total foreign exchange reserves (Hill, 2013).
Latvia’s Goals, Constraints, and Relevant Alternatives The countries’ goals would be the same for any country experiencing economic distress. Latvia would like to capitalize on the strong economic growth they are experiencing post-2008. With substantial financial assistance from the IMF, the EU, and other international donors to defend the Latvian currency’s peg to the Euro, the Latvian economy is remaining stable, not showing signs of improvement, but not getting worse. Collectively, the assistance amounted to 9.3 billion Euros. Latvia would like to make a full economic recovery, and the government does not want the Lat devalued against the Euro. This scenario would have created more economic hardship for Latvians.
There were constraints placed on Latvia by the IMF, the EU, Sweden, and Finland, the conditions imposed on the emergency funding required significant changes in the Latvia economic policy. Those conditions included interest rate increases, wage

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