licant)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Ojars Eriks KALNINS
chancery: 4325 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
telephone: [1] (202) 726-8213, 8214
FAX: [1] (202) 726-6785

Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission : Ambassador Larry C. NAPPER
embassy: Raina Boulevard 7, LV-1510, Riga
mailing address: PSC 78, Box R, APO AE 09723
telephone: [371] (2) 210-005
FAX : [371] (2) 226-530

Flag description: three horizontal bands of maroon (top), white
(half-width), and maroon

Economy

Economy - overview: In the five years following the implosion of the
USSR in December 1991, the Latvian economy has made substantial
progress toward establishing a modern market economy and widening
economic ties with the West. Two major long-term concerns are the
growing trade deficit and the impact of organized crime. The economy
in 1996 has largely recovered from the mid-1995 collapse of several
commercial banks - including Latvia's large bank, Bank Baltija - and a
severe government budget crisis. Prime Minister SKELE has stated that
he expects the country's GDP to grow 5% in 1997 through the
implementation of the government's new economic reform program. In
December 1996, the government passed a balanced 1997 budget - its
first - that SKELE predicts will reduce inflation to 10% to 12% in
1997. Unemployment, which has held steady at about 6% over the past
two years, reached roughly 7.5% in 1996. One of SKELE's key objectives
for 1997 is to speed up the privatization program, which has lagged
behind other areas of reform.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $9.4 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2.5% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $3,800 (1996 estimate as
extrapolated from World Bank estimate for 1994)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 9%
industry : 34%
services: 57% (1994)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 13.2% (1996 est.)

Labor force:
total: 1.268 million (1995)
by occupation: industry 41%, agriculture and forestry 16%, services
43% (1990)

Unemployment rate: 7.5% (1996 official est.)

Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures : $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Industries: buses, vans, street and railroad cars, synthetic fibers,
agricultural machinery, fertilizers, washing machines, radios,
electronics, pharmaceuticals, processed foods, textiles; dependent on
imports for energy, raw materials, and intermediate pr