Latvia’s challenge in 2019 will be to fully return in international financial markets - EY

  • 2019-01-03
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA – Latvia’s challenge this year will be to promote availability of workforce, to increase productivity, and to fully return in international financial markets, said Ernst & Young audit company’s representatives.

"Following a steep growth, Latvia’s economy starts to exhaust its future potential, therefore the 2019 priorities in economy should include political and practical solutions to promote availability of workforce and raise productivity," said Ernst & Young partner in the Baltic states, Andris Laucins.

He said that economic growth in the past years has been one of the main reasons for shortage of laborforce which further promotes wage growth as the business and public sectors compete for specialists. It means that competitiveness of companies is declining due to the growing costs – good and services will become more expensive. "This could be solve with promoting availability of skillful and educated workforce and targeted increase of productivity, investing in technologies and modern work processes," said Laucins.

"In addition, in order to ensure sustainable economic growth in Latvia, it is essential to improve assessment of the Latvian financial market and ensure that its members fully return in international financial markets, including renewing direct US dollar payments. Otherwise, Latvia will be considered a suburb of the developed European financial market, and it delays investments, increases the price of money resources and transactions for Latvian business representatives and institutions," Andris Laucins said.