Summed up

LITHUANIANS SELL LESS MILK, FEWER EGGS: Ten-month data provided by the Lithuanian Statistics Department show a year-on-year decline in milk and egg purchases but an increase in meat purchases this year. Some 1.054 million tons of milk were purchased in this country during ten months of 1999 in total, a drop of 19.5 percent over one year, while egg purchases fell 0.9 percent to 367 million units. From January to October, 141,600 tons of livestock and poultry were bought, an increase of 0.3 percent against the same period of 1998.

ANALYSTS SEE GDP GOING UP:Lithuanian market participants forecast that the country's gross domestic product will grow by 2.2 percent in a year by June 2000, said a survey. Data announced by the Statistics Department showed a 4.8 percent decline in the country's GDP in the first half of this year. The official forecast for the whole year 1999 is a 2.1 percent GDP contraction, while a two percent growth is expected in 2000. Market participants calculated that the country's inflation rate to be 2.6 percent in the first half of this year - compared with the official figure of 0.7 percent, the survey by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute showed. Experts forecast 3.9 percent inflation for the year to mid-2000 and 3.5 percent inflation for the whole year 2000, said the survey released Nov. 25

ESTONIAN GOVERNMENT FORSWEARS PIRACY: The Estonian Informatics Center signed an agreement with Microsoft on Nov. 25 under which Estonia commits itself to making legal all Microsoft software used in its government institutions.The agreement, signed during the opening of Microsoft's Baltic representation in Riga, says the Estonian government will ensure usage of legal coputer software in its institutions in the future. Microsoft, on its part, is offering the Estonian government special payment plans in addition to the bargain terms made available to buyers under Microsoft's software legalization campaign that are valid until the end of this year.

ROGER AND OUT TO UNITED STATES:Latvian tobacco factory House of Prince Riga has began production of "Roger" brand cigarettes especially for the market of the United States. The company has installed another cigarette production line to be able to produce the neccessary amount of cigarettes. House of Prince Riga currently is negotiating possibilities to export its output to Ukraine, Macedonia and the European Union member countries.

DATA TELECOM WINS GOVERNMENT CONTRACT: A public procurement tender for international Internet service to all Estonia's state institutions in 2000 was won by AS Data Telecom, the owner of the EUnet trade mark.The tender commission found the entry by Data Telecom as being the best in both technical terms and the price, Data Telecom said Nov. 26. Estonian state institutions will get Internet access at a speed of two megabits per second during the first half of 2000, provided by Data Telecom for 144,000 kroons ($9,400) per month. The speed of data transmission will be increased to four megabits per second from the second half of the year, with the price rising to 240,000 kroons per month, according to the offer. The other companies that submitted their tenders in the competition were Eesti Telefon, Uninet Andmeside and EsData.

BUTINGE FUNNELS OIL: The first shipment of imported oil began flowing into Lithuania's newly-built export/import terminal on Nov. 26. It took about 20 hours to pump 83,900 tons of crude delivered by the Panama-registered tanker Stena Compass into the terminal's reservoirs. The whole shipment was carried though a pipeline to the Lithuanian crude refinery Mazeikiu Nafta. It has not been announced yet when the refinery, shut down since Nov. 15 because of a lack of crude supplies, will resume operation. The 84,000 tons will suffice for around eight days' operation. Almanama, a Bahrain-registered tanker, was to sail into Butinge also on Nov. 26 to take in 85,000 tons of oil delivered for export by Russia's Yukos.

BANKS TALK MERGER:Latvia's commercial banks Trasta Komercbanka and Latvijas Tirdzniecibas Banka are planning to hold separate shareholder meetings Dec. 14 where they may decide on mergers with some of Latvia's commercial banks. The two are refusing to disclose with which credit institutions the mergers are planned because both Trasta Komercbanka and LTB have agreed to keep negotiations secret. LTB President Ivars Prieditis said a general meeting of the bank's shareholders is planned for Dec.14 to make decisions concerning merger with one of Latvia's commercial banks. The "year is nearing the end and the process should be completed around Christmas – either we merge or we are merged with – the question still remains open." Prieditis said

Baltic News Service, LETA