cally lagged behind Latvia and Estonia in
economic development. 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. Because of 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 held 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.
Lithuania is pressing ahead with plans to privatize at least 60% of
state-owned property (industry, agriculture, and housing), having already
sold almost all housing and many small enterprises using a voucher system.
Other government priorities include encouraging 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. In 1992, output plummeted
by 30% because of cumulative problems with inputs and with markets, problems
that were accentuated by the phasing out of the Russian ruble as the medium
of exchange.
National product:
GDP $NA
National product real growth rate:
-30% (1992 est.)
National product per capita:
$NA
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
10%-20% per month (first quarter 1993)
Unemployment rate:
1% (February 1993); but large numbers of underemployed workers
Budget:
revenues $258.5 million; expenditures $270.2 million, including capital
expenditures of $NA (1992 est.)
Exports:
$NA
commodities:
electronics 18%, petroleum products 5%, food 10%, chemicals 6% (1989)
part