Last week, the leadership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) decided unanimously to invite the European nation of Latvia to join as its 35th member. The Baltic nation had met all of the OECD’s membership requirements, and the decision to invite it to join the OECD was made by unanimous vote of the OECD’s governing council.
When it joined the OECD, Latvia’s government was lacking in strong legal practices. Since then, the small European nation has greatly improved its laws, at least on paper, including joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) anti-bribery convention in 2014. While the OECD was quick to praise Latvia for its reforms, it was equally quick to raise doubts about the country’s ability to actually enforce these new policies.
Latvia is an upper middle-income economies coming under the Europe and Central Asian region as to the classification made by the World Bank on the basis of income and region for the year 2006.
The Latvian economy has experienced a faster economic growth rate in the recent years. It joined the European Union in the year 2004. Implementation of Privatization process has brought tremendous success for the economy. Services constitute the largest share in the total GDP followed by Industries.
Prior to Latvia going into a recession in 2008, this country saw a significant 10% increase for Gross Domestic Product or GDP. During the time of recession, Latvia was struggling with serious public debt exposure, as well as a current account balance deficit that could not be maintained. To help boost Latvia’s economy, the European Union, International Monetary Fund or IMF, as well as a number of other donors provided aid.
