RIGA — Latvian retail companies continue to struggle with stagnant turnover after last year’s massive plunge as the economic crisis hit full tilt. Tweets about “hotel industry news” While Latvia’s gross domestic product is stabilizing, retail is showing little signs of recovering to anywhere near its pre-crisis levels during the “Baltic Tiger” boom, which saw [...]

VILNIUS — Despite improving gross domestic product numbers as Latvia and Lithuania emerge from deep recessions, unemployment numbers have yet to improve. According to the most recent domestic figures from the country’s central statistics bureau, Latvian unemployment is no longer increasing but stuck at a steady 15 percent. Meanwhile Eurostat’s numbers continue to be higher, [...]

RIGA — The revolving door of the Diena editor position is spinning again, with photographer Ilmārs Znotiņš being hired for the Latvian newspaper’s top spot on Tuesday. The newspaper’s editor Sergejs Ancupovs and Diena.lv website editor Gunita Ogriņa were both dismissed on Aug. 5, the same day 51 percent of the newspaper’s parent company Dienas [...]

RIGA — Parex Bank, which nationalized in 2008 to prevent it from going belly-up in light of the financial crisis, is promising to return 400 million lats (€565 million) to the Latvian government over the next seven years. The money will be made from the sale of government shares of Citadele Bank, the solvent portion [...]

RIGA — Latvian national airline airBaltic and Riga International Airport, both state-owned entities, agreed Tuesday to drop their lawsuits against each other and proceed cooperatively. Despite both being under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport, the airline and airport got in a nasty dispute about ground handling fees and tariffs. In July the airBaltic [...]

VILNIUS — The Scandinavians brought the money and the Baltic states brought their untapped markets. Together they created the “Baltic Tiger,” one of the fastest-growing economies in the world for much of the past decade. But the combination of the popping of a vastly overheated real estate market the tiger engorged and the global credit [...]

RIGA — The Baltic states have seen some of the largest increase in exports in the European Union during the first five months of 2010 according to the latest figures from Eurostat. Estonia has the second-highest increase in the EU at 26 percent, while Latvia and Lithuania were tied in fourth at 22 percent, a [...]

RIGA — On Wednesday Latvian food inspection authorities uncovered an attempt by the Baltstor Ltd. retail chain to sell four metric tons of expired Merrild coffee by putting a false expiration date on the packaging. Food and Veterinary Service officials acted on a tip from a customer that had bought the coffee, and after searching [...]

RIGA — Following claims that airBaltic CEO Bertolt Flick bought the branding rights to the airline without the knowledge of the government, Flick has responded that he talked with the minister of transport at least three times about the matter. Flick’s company Baltijas Aviācijas Sistēmas bought the branding rights to the airline for €13 million [...]

RIGA — In the second quarter of this year, Latvia’s gross domestic product decreased by the smallest amount since the crisis began in 2008. Initial estimates by the country’s central statistics bureau show -3.9 percent year-on-year for the Latvian economy, seasonally adjusted, and grew 0.1 percent from the previous quarter. Industrial production increased by 6 [...]