'Compromise budget' goes to Saeima

Nov 03, 2009
Oskars Magone

RIGA - In a highly publicized moment, Latvian Finance Minister Einars Repse has handed the Cabinet's "compromise budget" to parliament to be approved.

Parliament is expected to pass the budget, but it is still unclear when the final vote will take place.

“This draft is the result of long and painstaking discussions, and in the conditions of an economic crisis it is the best possible compromise budget,” Repse said in a statement.

The budget represents months of wrangling between the Latvian government and international lenders, which had required the country cut some 500 million lats from the budget as a condition for loans.

The budget was sent to committee on Nov. 3.

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