(1992-95)

Currency: 1 Latvian lat (LVL) = 100 santims; introduced NA March 1993

Exchange rates: lats (LVL) per US$1-0.595 (January 1998), 0.581
(1997), 0.551 (1996), 0.528 (1995), 0.560 (1994), 0.675 (1993)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 660,000 (1993 est.)

Telephone system: service is better than in most of the other former
Soviet republics
domestic: an NMT-450 analog cellular telephone network covers 75% of
Latvia's population
international: international traffic carried by leased connection to
the Moscow international gateway switch, through the new Ericsson
digital telephone exchange in Riga, and through the Finnish cellular
net; Sprint data network carries electronic mail

Radio broadcast stations: 25 (unknown type)

Radios: 1.4 million (1993 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 30

Televisions: 1.1 million (1993 est.)

@Latvia:Transportation

Railways:
total: 2,412 km
broad gauge: 2,379 km 1.520-m gauge (271 km electrified) (1992)
narrow gauge: 33 km 0.750-m gauge (1994)

Highways:
total: 60,046 km
paved: 22,998 km
unpaved: 37,048 km (1995 est.)

Waterways: 300 km perennially navigable

Pipelines: crude oil 750 km; refined products 780 km; natural gas 560
km (1992)

Ports and harbors: Daugavpils, Liepaja, Riga, Ventspils

Merchant marine:
total: 24 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 293,799 GRT/440,575 DWT
ships by type: cargo 2, oil tanker 18, refrigerated cargo 4 (1997
est.)

Airports: 50 (1994 est.)

Airports-with paved runways:
total: 36
2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
914 to 1,523 m: 1
under 914 m: 27 (1994 est.)

Airports-with unpaved runways:
total: 14
2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
914 to 1,523 m: 2
under 914 m: 10 (1994 est.)

@Latvia:Military

Military branches: Ground Forces, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces,
Security Forces, Border Guard, Home Guard (Zemessardze)

Military manpower-military age: 18 years of age

Military manpower-availability:
males age 15-49: 569,745 (1998 est.)

Military manpower-fit for military service:
males: 446,562 (1998 est.)

Military manpower-reaching military age annually:
males: 16,594 (1998 est.)

Military expenditures-dollar figure: 176 million rubles (1994);
note-conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using the
prevailing exchange rate could produce misleading results

Military expenditures-percent of GDP: 3% to 5% (1994)

@Latvia:Transnational Issues

Disputes-international: