Latvia: Recovery and Reforms
07 February 2013 5:00 pm CET
David Moore, IMF Resident Representative in Latvia
Venue
wiiw, Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Vienna, lecture hall (entrance from the ground floor)
Description
Latvia has returned to robust economic growth after a deep downturn in 2008–09 and a difficult adjustment program, and is now within reach of qualifying for euro adoption in 2014. Critics of Latvia’s economic strategy point to continuing high rates of unemployment and poverty; advocates point to the benefits of frontloading spending cuts and tax increases to lay the foundations for recovery.The presentation will cover:
- How Latvia went from deep crisis—in a context of severe pre-existing imbalances—to strong recovery;
- Latvia’s macroeconomic policy efforts to address its imbalances under the 2008–11 EU-IMF program;
- The remaining impediments to employment and investment, and the case for further microeconomic reforms—including in the judicial system, state-owned enterprises, and higher and vocational education—to build on earlier reform efforts and support Latvia’s ongoing recovery.
David Moore became the IMF Resident Representative in Latvia in June 2009. He has been an IMF economist since 1999 and has extensive experience with country work in Europe, including on Lithuania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Romania. Before joining the IMF, David Moore had been an economist in his home country, at the Reserve Bank of Australia.