Latvia Is A Success Story, If By 'Success Story' You Mean 'Disaster'

**sevruk** · 01-06-2013, 08:24 AM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadom...mean-disaster/

SkyBurn · 01-06-2013, 08:30 AM

**Absinthe** · 01-06-2013, 09:02 AM

Latvia is a great little country. Go visit to find out. The economy might not be good yet but the people are tough and they do the best they can. Riga is a beautiful city with the potential to attract tourists from all over since it's quite inexpensive as well.
Latvians are but a handful of people so I don't get how the world expects so much from them and criticizes them if they haven't become an economic superpower.

**Hochmeister** · 01-06-2013, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by Absinthe

I don't get how the world expects so much from them and criticizes them if they haven't become an economic superpower.

Latvia used to have very important industries there in the Soviet Union, like fish, electronics, high-precision mechanics, furs and leather et cetera and so on.
But in our days Latvia has lost everything. There is no job, Latvians emigrate westward. And it is their fault that this has happened. The main reason - is their pathetic rusophobia.

**Meow** · 01-06-2013, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Hochmeister

Latvia used to have very important industries there in the Soviet Union, like fish, electronics, high-precision mechanics, furs and leather et cetera and so on.
But in our days Latvia has lost everything. There is no job, Latvians emigrate westward. And it is their fault that this has happened. The main reason - is their pathetic rusophobia.

Couldn't agree more with your post. Who needs Dirty Russians when you've got freedom of speech and joys of Western Democracy.

**sevruk** · 01-06-2013, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by Absinthe

Latvia is a great little country. Go visit to find out. The economy might not be good yet but the people are tough and they do the best they can. Riga is a beautiful city with the potential to attract tourists from all over since it's quite inexpensive as well.
Latvians are but a handful of people so I don't get how the world expects so much from them and criticizes them if they haven't become an economic superpower.

Riga - is not all of Latvia

**Absinthe** · 01-06-2013, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by sevruk

Riga - is not all of Latvia

Well it is at least half of it, judging from the population distribution.

**Incal** · 01-06-2013, 10:36 PM

Never been to Latvia, the few things I know from Latvia were through member Dridiksson. Even when not uber rich I'm pretty sure they are doing better than most of the world (Africa, Asia, etc).

**Humanophage** · 01-25-2013, 02:46 PM

Latvia seems to be performing pretty well, albeit less so than the other two Baltic economies. Since 2000, Estonia's and Lithuania's GDP per capita growth has been larger than Russia's, for all the lack of oil. Latvia and Russia used to have the same GDP per capita in 2000, now Russia's is slightly larger. Similarly oil-reliant countries like Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan grew at an even more impressive rate. However, in terms of GNI per capita, Russia is still behind all three by a considerable margin.

As for Latvian demographic problems, I wouldn't call them exceptionally drastic. Neighbouring core Russian and Finno-Ugric regions face an even more dramatic decline:

For comparison, Dagestan's parameters are 134% for 2000 and 160% for 2010. Granted, unlike Latvians who migrate to EU, Russians mainly migrate to Moscow, but the regions are being depleted of population at an alarming rate. While Russia grew by about 300 000 people between 2006 and 2012, this growth comes overwhelmingly from the Caucasus. Dagestan alone grew by 290 000 people in the same period, Chechnya by 140 000, Karachaevo-Cherkessia by 50 000, etc.