The Baltic Leader

Lithuania is the leader among the Baltic States according to economic performance in the first half of the year with its GDP growth of 7.9% (the same figure for Latvia being 7.5% and for Estonia 4.3%) according to preliminary data of the Departments of Statistics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. “In recent years Lithuania has been very competitive. Our economic performance has been very fast and we can expect the GDP to grow in the coming years by 5% and more”, said Raimondas Kuodis, Director of the Bank Policy Department of the Bank of Lithuania. Lithuanian Ministry of Finance forecasts a 6.8% GDP growth for 2003 and a 6.2% - for 2004, whereas the same forecasts of the IMF are 5.8% and 6.2% respectively and those of “Vilniaus Bankas” – 6.5% and 6.8%.