Next year may not turn out to be a growth year. Economic growth will slow down, said Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš in an interview to Latvijas Radio.
Tuesday, the 20th of December, marks the first work meeting of Kariņš’s second government. It is planned for it to start at 13:00 p.m. local time. Ministers gathered for a meeting shortly after Saeima’s vote last week. However, this was a festive meeting – no important government topics were discussed.
Kariņš explained that at the coming meetings it is necessary to understand how much money is left to invest in one of the new government’s priorities.
At the same time, it is clear that there is not enough money to afford all of the government’s initiatives. This means that it is for the ruling coalition to decide how much money goes to which priorities. Kariņš reminded that currently the economy is in the ‘slowdown phase’, adding that next year is not expected to be a growth year.
Kariņš stressed that it is Russia’s war in Ukraine to blame for the current situation. This, he said, caused the rapid surge of electricity prices. Latvian PM said European funds are one of the solutions that can help improve the economic situation.
At the first meeting of the new government Latvia’s newly-elected ministers plan to discuss the State Budget for 2023 and schedule for discussions of budget contents for 2023, 2024 and 2025. At the same time, it is planned to discuss multiple other topics.