In fact, the rumours that circulated in the autumn have also been confirmed: eight billion euros are already needed to fulfil all the plans, which is a fourfold cost increase for the project, but Latvia does not have that kind of money.

Retail turnover is still being affected by the decline in residents’ real income, with the rise in consumer prices in the first half of this year exceeding income growth and negatively impacting household consumption.

Despite numerous challenges and unclear growth prospects, the global economy continued to grow in 2023. On the positive side, interest rate hikes have helped reduce inflation, energy prices have fallen, and the global economy has so far managed to avoid recession. However, growth in the eurozone remains weak, and in the third quarter of 2023, GDP in the eurozone grew by only 0.1% compared to the same period of the previous year; global trade is shrinking, and business sentiment in the eurozone is negative.

Innovation is lacking in Latvian entrepreneurship and development is happening too slowly. In its audit report on business innovation policy, the State Audit Office cites two main reasons for Latvia’s stagnation:

support measures were not allocated sufficient funding for their impact to be significant;

the outcome indicators for intervention measures set by ministries are formal – for example, the number of companies that received support – and they in no way describe how the implementation of the measures affects the achievement of policy objectives.

 

Human capital development and the promotion of corporate innovation capacity and technological development are the two most significant challenges for Latvia in increasing overall productivity and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the coming years. In these indicators, Latvia lags behind not only the European average but also its neighbours. Consequently, in addressing these issues, we need not only to understand how to move forward faster but also how to be faster than our competitors to reach the European average level.

 

 

From 1 December, it is permitted to hunt red deer hinds during driven hunts in designated hunting areas using red deer calf hunting permits. This decision was made to reduce the damage caused by red deer to forestry and agricultural crops.

 

 

I have also noticed that people who criticise “leftism” use the vocabulary of Marxism-Leninism in their speech, and this happens most likely without them even realising it. But if education is not valued in society as a whole, how can one expect there to be knowledge about the origins and historical fates of ideological currents?

 

...the name of the Czech naturalist, cartographer, and ethnologist Emil Holub has gone down in history thanks to his expeditions in Central and Southern Africa and the natural science and ethnographic collections he gathered there. Viewing the exhibition dedicated to the famous Czech, one involuntarily draws a comparison with Latvian Africanist Ziedonis Ligers (1917–2001), who conducted research in West Africa for many years.

 

When a five-storey building suddenly collapsed this year in March at a construction site near Riga Central Station, archaeologist Dr. hist. Artūrs Tomsons urged people to take a look at 17th-century maps. Approximately 400–500 years ago, Riga’s historical centre was rich in water. Over the centuries, streams and brooks were filled in to build houses and create streets.

 

Let us be honest, the majority of not only the public but also various experts view the granting (or, more importantly, the potential non-granting) of clearances to city mayors, first of all, from the point of view of their state loyalty – as a sieve through which to finally sift out those “Saskaņa” supporters, Elksniņš and others, who definitely have some pro-Kremlin louse hidden in their fur. While allowing themselves to admit it more shyly and perhaps not as loudly, some view this as a tool to sift out everyone from the circle of mayors they politically, ideologically, and in every other way despise.