Lithuania

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Country summary

Capital

Vilnius

Borders

Belarus 680 km, Latvia 576 km, Poland 91 km, Russia (Kaliningrad) 227 km

Government type

parliamentary democracy

Population

3,555,179 (July 2010 est.)[1]

Population growth

-0.279% (2010 est.)[1]

Life expectancy

74.9 years[1]

Unemployment

13.7% (2009 est.)[1]

Index of Economic Freedom

29[2]

Corruption Perceptions Index

52[3]

Doing Business ranking

26[4]


Lithuanian lands were united under MINDAUGAS in 1236; over the next century, through alliances and conquest, Lithuania extended its territory to include most of present-day Belarus and Ukraine. By the end of the 14th century Lithuania was the largest state in Europe. An alliance with Poland in 1386 led the two countries into a union through the person of a common ruler. In 1569, Lithuania and Poland formally united into a single dual state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This entity survived until 1795 when its remnants were partitioned by surrounding countries. Lithuania regained its independence following World War I but was annexed by the USSR in 1940 - an action never recognized by the US and many other countries. On 11 March 1990, Lithuania became the first of the Soviet republics to declare its independence, but Moscow did not recognize this proclamation until September of 1991 (following the abortive coup in Moscow). The last Russian troops withdrew in 1993. Lithuania subsequently restructured its economy for integration into Western European institutions; it joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.[1]

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: Lithuanian litas (ISO code: LTL)
  • Central bank discount rate: 1.75% (February 2010)[1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: 3.27% (February 2010)[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $8.55 billion (January 2010)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $8.731 billion (31 December 2009 est.)[1]

Notable events:

Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[6] 10 917 11 434 12 159 14 164 18 609 22 552 25 962 30 089 38 894 47 341
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[7] 26.466 23.373 21.370 20.999 18.999 18.354
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[8] 25.937 25.371 27.939 27.528 27.756 28.530 28.704 28.843 28.726
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[9] 26.877 26.392 28.370 27.535 28.528 28.138 28.420 29.294 31.443
Debt to revenue (years) 0.961 0.842 0.749 0.732 0.659 0.639

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 CIA - The World Factbook. "Lithuania", from The World Factbook. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  2. ↑ Heritage Foundation. "Lithuania", Economic Freedom Score. A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  3. ↑ Transparency International. "Lithuania", Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. A lower ranking is better; but please note that the numbers cannot be compared between countries or years due to different methodology. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  4. ↑ Doing Business. "Lithuania", Doing Business 2010 (part of The World Bank Group). A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  5. ↑ Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. "This Time is Different", Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6, p. 372. (The list does not claim to be complete.) Referenced 2011-07-20.
  6. ↑ World Bank. "Lithuania: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  7. ↑ World Bank. "Lithuania: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  8. ↑ World Bank. "Lithuania: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  9. ↑ World Bank. "Lithuania: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.

Links

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