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International Journal of Applied Finance For Non-Financial Managers (ISSN: 1742-528X) Volume 2 Issue 2
Dr oec, prof Inna Stetsenko
Baltic Russian Institute
Riga, Latvia
Latvia is a small Baltic country with 2 340 000 inhabitants. However, Latvia's participation in globalization processes, i.e. the EU accession and taking part in many other international organizations (e.g. World Trade organization), provides an opportunity for Latvian entrepreneurs to deal with various investment projects.
According to statistical data, in 2004 Latvia's foreign trade turnover with
the EU countries
accounted for almost 80%.
Table 1. Latvian exports' structure by commodity groups (2004 I-X)
|
Mln lats |
Structure (%) |
Year-on-year changes (%) |
Total: Wood and products of wood Metalworking, machine building and transport equipment Light industry goods Chemical goods and articles of plastics Agricultural and food products Other goods |
1368.6 490.3 294.8 187.7 102.6 118.5 174.7 |
100 35.8 21.5 13.7 7.5 8.7 12.8 |
16.9 25.2 17.4 17.5 19.0 -0.8 7.2 |
The most active countries-exporters were: the United Kingdom(12,9 % from total amount of country's export) Germany (12,3 %), Sweden (10,3 %), Lithuania (9,5 %) and Estonia (8,2 %). The sixth place was occupied by Russia where Latvia had sold goods for 137 million lats (6,5 %).