FORBES: LITHUANIA, THE EUROPE'S UNSUNG HERO
Not every recession-hit country in Europe is like wayward Greece, Portugal and Spain, says Steve Forbes in the Forbes magazine, having in mind Lithuania.
After Lithuania’s Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius met Forbes during his visit to the USA, a publication, saying Lithuania is an unsung hero of the EU, showed up in the Forbes magazine.Unlike Greece, which has garnered headlines for its economic woes, Lithuania more than a year ago firmly faced up to the economic crisis and took stern measures. Government spending was slashed by 30 percent. Public-sector salaries were cut 20 percent to 30 percent. And pensions were knocked down an average of 5 percent. The prime minister himself took a pay cut of 45 percent.
Lithuania is now showing positive growth again. In the years ahead its recovery should outpace that of most members of the EU because Lithuania isn’t wedded to slow-growth policies, as are most Western European states.
In fact, before the crisis the Lithuanian economy had been on fire, Forbes writes. Lithuania was one of the pioneers of the flat tax, and it had also instituted a currency board to fight inflation. Today its currency is fixed to the euro, and the country hopes to formally adopt the euro in 2014.
