Excellence in combating inflation / Diena

Traditionally, in terms of growth rates of consumer prices, Latvia has been in the vanguard of European countries. This can be explained both by various specific circumstances and by the lower income of our country’s residents, even against the background of the Baltic neighboring countries, not to mention the wealthiest members of the European Union (EU). The same was true in the last bursts of inflation, which began in 2021 and ended last winter, when Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as Hungary, were hit by the fastest increase in the cost of living among all EU member states.

In Latvia, the last highest annual inflation rate – 22.2% – was reached in September 2022, while in March of this year, the annual increase in the consumer price index had shrunk to 0.9%, according to the data compiled by the Central Statistics Office. Regarding the aforementioned Hungary, it must be said that its friendship with the Russian imperialist regime is not really understandable. In such an important area for citizens as price increase, including vital energy resources, there are no visible benefits of Budapest looking to Moscow. Hungary continues to live with relatively high inflation (in March, 3.7% in annual terms) this spring as well, while Latvia, despite giving up Russian natural gas and other resources of its eastern neighbor, has managed to achieve one of the lowest inflation rates in Europe. The population, tired of the previous price jump, does not really feel it, but it is probably only a matter of time before the low inflation is noticed. Of course, this will only happen if the cost of living does not experience another global jump due to some political or economic upheaval.