This report analyzes concentration in the grocery retail market in the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The markets (including some comparator Eastern and Western European markets) are analyzed using two standard measures: the Herfindahl Hirschman Index and the four firm...

Global energy demand continues to grow. Crude oil production is stagnating, coal's production cost is rising fast on the back of carbon pricing, electricity generating capacity is getting old and nuclear power has its own environmental and political issues. In addition there is the concern about...

This policy paper assesses Latvian inflation performance in an EU and Baltic states context and speculates on the overall prospects for the Latvian economy in the light of the emerging slowdown both in Latvia and elsewhere. On inflation it is likely that, in the absence of new major price...

The paper investigates whether the evidence suggests that a broadband package on the lines of the Obama package in the US or the Digital Britain initiative in the UK could be an appropriate instrument in recession-hit Latvia. The idea would be to use the opportunity of the recession to create a...

What a difference a year makes. Our previous report, from June 2007, focussed on overheating of the Latvian economy and rising inflation. Now, some 14 months later, the Latvian economy has entered recession as measured by two consecutive quarters of seasonally adjusted GDP decline. At the same...

This investigation addresses the issue of what truth there is behind the widespread belief that too few Latvian produced food products are available in Latvian shops. Using some simple concepts from economics we construct a number of empirical indicators that permit international comparisons to...

This report is the second in an annual series produced by BICEPS and SSE Riga on macro policy issues. The 2007 report is again on inflation but this time focusing only on Latvia. The inflation problem in Latvia has not gone away and if anything has intensified since early 2006 to the extent that...