Latvia clocked EU's deepest recession
(RIGA) - The crisis-ravaged Latvian economy shrank 18 percent in 2009 on an annual basis, official statistics showed Thursday, signalling the deepest recession in the entire 27-member EU last year.
The Statistics Latvia figure issued Thursday is in line with a Eurostat estimate for Latvia's 2009 gross domestic product. Based on the Eurostat estimates, the 2.2-million-strong ex-Soviet state is also revealed to have suffered the worst recession in the European Union in 2009.
On an annual basis, the fourth quarter of 2009 saw Latvia's economy shrink by 16.9 percent compared to the same three-month period in 2008. Seasonally-adjusted quarter-on-quarter figures will be released Friday, the office said.
Latvia had enjoyed booming double-digit economic growth after it entered the European Union in 2004.
But its economy went into freefall as the boom -- which had been stoked by easy credit and rising wages -- started to unravel in 2007 and the global crisis added a further blow.
Unemployment spiralled as the Baltic nation sank into its worst economic crisis since it shed Soviet rule in 1991.
Latvia secured a 7.5-billion-euro (10.5-billion-dollar) international bailout and the government has been slashing social security and other public spending in an effort to curb its deficit.
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