Following the collapse of the previous centre-right administration, headed by Valdis Dombrovskis, a new government was voted into power in January 2014. The new administration, headed by Laimdota Straujuma, will serve as an effective caretaker government until the next parliamentary election in October.
Domestically measured inflation slowed considerably in 2013, in line with trends witnessed across Europe, coming in flat for the year as a whole. We forecast average inflation of 0.8% in 2014, rising to an average of 3.4% in 2015-18.
The current-account deficit narrowed to 0.8% of GDP in 2013, owing to strong export growth in the first half of the year. From 2014 we expect the shortfall to begin widening, reaching 2.9% of GDP by 2018. This is still well below the external deficits posted in the years before the global financial crisis.

Country forecast overview 6

Highlights 6

Business environment rankings 7

Fact sheet 8

Outlook for 2014-18 9

Political outlook 9

Economic policy outlook 10

Economic forecast 12

Data summary 15

Data sources and definitions 20

中国科学技术信息研究所