Lietuvas un Latvijas karogi. Foto - Zane Bitere, LETA.
Over the years, there have been plenty of initiatives for Latvia’s future growth. One current example is the National Development Plan of Latvia for 2021 – 2027, another this one from the Economics Ministry.
Fine, but increasingly it is my feeling that the focus is somewhat wrong: Instead of focusing entirely on priorities for Latvia, it might be fruitful to look at a) what has perhaps not been done or b) what may have been done wrong.
This view of mine comes from looking at the Lithuanian economy. Lithuania has simply been performing significantly better than Latvia and has done so for a very long time.
But why? I don’t know all the answers but I think a Latvian focus on this might be useful.
Some statistics to support my view will follow below.
When Latvia and Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004, Lithuanian GDP per capita was 8.3% higher than in Latvia, see Figure 1. 20 years (and a bit) have passed since then and the difference has grown to a gap of no less than 23.2%, putting Lithuania way ahead of Latvia by now.
