And how can this position be improved? I mean, the fact that you relentlessly note in your analysis that Latvia's average productivity is around 60% of the European Union average does not make things any easier. I understand that there can be temporary “dips”, such as during the pandemic – the state pays some money to a number of people, and people work only partially or not at all. However, that is a specific situation with a beginning and an end. What is to be done? Buy more equipment to replace human labour?

Until 2012, Lithuania had very similar productivity figures. Within three or four years, they raised this figure to about 80% of the European Union average. What did the Lithuanians do? Much larger companies began to form, which started selling “directly”. For Latvia, the largest share of imports comes from the European Union. For Lithuania, the largest share comes from China. Because the Lithuanians said: why should we pay the Europeans if we can buy from China ourselves? Yes, currently Lithuania's relations with China have deteriorated, and there is a war, but before that, in every train load that arrived weekly from China to Poland, several wagons were destined for Lithuania. If your country's companies are small, then you cannot afford that.
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