Lietuva in brief - 2010-04-21

One of the most popular world travel guides, Lonely Planet, has announced the ten best beaches in the world, reports ELTA. According to the report ‘Best Beaches to Swing a Hammock,’ the Curonian Spit was ranked the second best beach in the world. “This 98-km lick of sand is a wondrous mixture of dunes (some as high as 200 meters) and forest - the smell of pine will impart an otherworldly quality to your hammock time. Wilhelm von Humboldt believed that a trip to the Curonian Spit was essential nourishment for the soul, and Thomas Mann was also drawn to this timeless wonderland. It is said that around 14 villages are buried under the endless, shifting dunes, making the Spit a kind of Baltic Sahara. The towering 52m ‘Great Dune’ is in Nida; to get there take the ferry from Klaipeda to Neringa, then drive or cycle 50 kilometers,” the Lonely Planet writes in its report.

Lithuania is ready for budget cuts in the coming years to meet its goal of joining the euro zone in 2014, Finance Minister Ingrida Simonyte said April 17, reports Reuters. “For 2011 and 2012, there will be a need for some additional [fiscal] consolidation. Otherwise, I don’t know how we will get the deficit below 3 percent of GDP,” she said at a meeting of European Union finance ministers. A country wishing to adopt the euro must have a budget deficit, if any, below 3 percent of GDP, a level Lithuania wants to achieve in 2012. She said Lithuania was emerging from the economic crisis, with its economy forecast to grow by some 1.6 percent this year after a 15 percent contraction in 2009. She reiterated that Lithuania might tap international financial markets again this year after a $2 billion bond issue earlier in 2010.