SEB bank cuts Lithuania’s GDP growth forecast

GDP growth in 2016 was also revised in the latest macroeconomic review by SEB bank, it was reduced from 3.5 to 2.8 percent. The average inflation in 2015 was revised from minus 0.4 to minus 0.7 percent, while 0.3 percent inflation is still expected in 2016. In addition, in 2017 prices are expected to increase by 1.2 percent on average.

According to SEB bank analysts, in the first half of 2015 Lithuania’s GDP growth rate was slower than Latvia’s and Estonia’s. It was mostly influenced by greater export dependence on the Russian market, in which purchasing power is falling. SEB bank noted that in the first and second quarter of 2015 Lithuania’s economy was driven by domestic consumption.