Raising productivity is Latvia's greatest economic challenge right now - Aseradens

RIGA - Raising productivity and improving export performance based on high-added-value products is currently Latvia’s greatest economic challenge, Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens (Unity) said at the presentation of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Economic Survey of Latvia2017 today.

The minister said that the OECD report is an affirmation of successful cooperation between Latvia and the OECD which will surely continue and grow even stronger. “The OECD Economic Survey of Latvia is extremely useful, and I am confident that it will be an integral part of the daily work of the government and policy makers. It will help Latviato implement its economic policy and ongoing structural reforms more successfully,” said Aseradens.

The OECD says in the survey that Latvia’s economic growth has been robust thanks to the implementation of structural reforms but that the growth has been insufficient to ensure fast life standards’ convergence with the organization’s more affluent countries, Aseradens said, stressing that Latvia must not stop work on its structural reforms even for a moment.

The economics minister said that the subject of productivity has been widely discussed in the OECD’s Economic Survey of Latvia 2017 and that promoting productivity is one of the Economic Ministry’s priorities at the moment.

“Why is the subject of productivity so important to Latvia? I have repeatedly stressed that there is a risk of Latviabeing caught into the medium-income trap, which is why it is necessary to concentrate on making high-added-value products. This will help us build a welfare state, reduce social inequality and poverty, problems that are extensively discussed in the OECD’s Economic Survey of Latvia,” Aseradens said.