Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Latvian PM Quits over Economic Crisis
Share:
by Jordan Yerman | February 20, 2009 at 07:52 am
66 views | 5 Recommendations | 1 comment
Videos
Having survived an earlier no-confidence vote, Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis has resigned over the ongoing economic crisis and its effect on Latvia. His coalition government will disband, and a new coalition- or new government must now be formed.
The credit crunch killed Latvia's growth spurt, and the year ahead is expected to be bleak.
Earlier the two largest parties in the ruling centre-right coalition had demanded the PM's resignation.
International lenders, including the IMF, World Bank and EU, have pledged 7.5bn euros (£6.6bn; $9.5bn) to shore up Latvia's struggling economy.
Protesters demanding the government's resignation clashed with police in the capital Riga on 13 January.
"It is possible they will be able to work out a new coalition but I think what it really means is new elections," said Lars Christensen, head of emerging markets research at Danske Bank.
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
Jordan Yerman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 15:24 on February 20th, 2009
More info here:
"Latvia's center-right coalition government collapsed Friday, a victim of the country's growing economic and political turmoil and the second European government, after Iceland, to disintegrate because of the international financial crisis."
Another of many...
"The original February 11 story was a shocker. The author claims to have seen a secret European Commission report. The report estimates that losses (write-downs) by European banks will be in the range of $25 trillion.
If true, then to save the banking system, European governments will have to find an extra $25 trillion, fast. There is only one source of such funding: the central banks, mainly the European Central Bank (ECB)"