ia in economic
development. It is ahead of its Baltic neighbors, however, in implementing
market reform. The country has no important natural resources aside from its
arable land and strategic location. Industry depends entirely on imported
materials that have come from the republics of the former USSR. Lithuania
benefits from its ice-free port at Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea and its rail
and highway hub at Vilnius, which provides land communication between
Eastern Europe and Russia, Latvia, Estonia, and Belarus. Industry produces a
small assortment of high-quality products, ranging from complex machine
tools to sophisticated consumer electronics. Thanks to nuclear power,
Lithuania is presently self-sufficient in electricity, exporting its surplus
to Latvia and Belarus; the nuclear facilities inherited from the USSR,
however, have come under world scrutiny as seriously deficient in safety
standards. Agriculture is efficient compared with most of the former Soviet
Union. Lithuania holds first place in per capita consumption of meat, second
place for eggs and potatoes, and fourth place for milk and dairy products.
Grain must be imported to support the meat and dairy industries. As to
economic reforms, Lithuania is pressing ahead with plans to privatize at
least 60% of state-owned property (industry, agriculture, and housing)
having already sold many small enterprises using a voucher system. Other
government priorities include stimulating foreign investment by protecting
the property rights of foreign firms and redirecting foreign trade away from
Eastern markets to the more competitive Western markets. For the moment,
Lithuania will remain highly dependent on Russia for energy, raw materials,
grains, and markets for its products.
GDP:
purchasing power equivalent - $NA; per capita NA; real growth rate -13%
(1991)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
200% (1991)
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
revenues 4.8 billion rubles; expenditures 4.7 billion rubles (1989 economic
survey); note - budget revenues and expenditures are not given for other
former Soviet republics; implied deficit from these figures does not have a
clear interpretation
Exports:
700 million rubles (f.o.b., 1990)
commodities:
electronics 18%, petroleum products 16%, food 10%, chemicals 6% (1989)
partners:
Russia 60%, Ukr