Growth of self-employment shows ‘spread of entrepreneurship’

The Swedbank Finance Institute’s data shows that the issuance of business licences grew 6% last year, to 100,000.

The so-called individual activity certificate, the second most popular form of short-term economic activity licence, was issued 80,000 times last year, or 14% more than in 2014.

“The number of people who are self-employed and who do their own accounting has been growing for several years now, indicating the spread of entrepreneurship in the country,” said Odeta Bložienė, the head of Swedbank Finance Institute in Lithuania. “This trend is also helped by simplified paperwork procedures.”

Additionally, nearly 12,500 Lithuanians had a functioning individual company or small business, which is 7% more than a year ago.

Odeta Bložienė says that another notable trend is that more and more people choose to legalize their income instead of taking unaccounted and illegal payments for services in cash.

balsas.tv3.lt