An Introduction to Lithuania
The largest of the three Baltic states, the Republic of Lithuania was the first Soviet Republic to declare independence, on March 11th 1990. See full country profile.Latest Research News from Europe (Other)
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GOVERNMENT: parliamentary republic
AREA: 65,300 sq km
POPULATION: 3,187,176 (2012 est. - almost 300,000 less than the figure in the 2002 census)
MAJOR LANGUAGE: Official Language: Lithuanian
Some business and general info
The Market Research Industry
Trade and Industry in Lithuania
According to French scientist Jean-George Affholder, the Geographic centre of Europe based on its geometrical shape is a point 26 km north of Vilnius.
The web site speedtest.net ranked the country first in the world for Internet upload speed, but evidently connectivity doesn't buy happiness: Lithuania now records the highest suicide rate in the world, and the highest homicide rate in the EU.
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The largest of the three Baltic states, the Republic of Lithuania was the first Soviet Republic to declare independence, on March 11th 1990.
The first state to bear the name was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, united in 1253 and growing during the following century to become the largest country in Europe, including present-day Belarus, Ukraine and parts of Poland and Russia. It formed a voluntary union with Poland in 1569, only crumbling to neighbouring states in the late 18th century - the Russian Empire annexed most of its territory. Lithuania was re-established as an independent state in 1918, but re-occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, taken by the Nazis in 1941 and again by the Soviets in 1944.Until the current financial crises hit in 2008, Lithuania had one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe - since the year 2000 GDP has almost doubled with a growth rate of 77%.
GDP: $63.7bn (2012 est.) - $19,600 per capita (2012 est.)
Religions Roman Catholic 79%; Orthodox 4.1%; orthodox (old believers) 0.8% (2001 census); c.12% atheist / agnostic (Eurobarmoeter 2005)
Currency: Litas; pegged to the Euro at the rate of 3.4528 to 1
Telephone Code: + 370
MR Association(s):
LRSTA (the Lithuanian Market and Social Research Association)
Lithuania is the 60th largest research market in the world, and the 30th largest in Europe. According to the ESOMAR Global Prices Study 2012 the country was the 53rd most expensive for carrying out research.
Source: ESOMAR
In 2003, before joining the EU, Lithuania had the highest economic growth rate among all candidate and member countries, and it continued to grow, by 7.4% in 2004, 7.8% in 2005 and again in 2006, 8.9% in 2007 and 7.0% by 2008. It has returned to stability since 2009 and has gross external debt of only 26.6% of GDP.
The litas, the national currency, has been pegged to the Euro since 2 Februa'y 2002. Lithuania was expecting to switch to the Euro in 2010 but with the current crisis has postponed accession until 1st January 2014. The country is gradually shifting towards a knowledge-based economy with special emphasis on biotechnology.
Exports totalled EUR 20.2 billion in 2011 and imports EUR 22.6bn. 2009 exports included mineral products (21.5%), mechanical and electrical goods (10.6%) and chemical products (9.1%). Key partners in 2010 were Russia (15.6%), Germany (9.8%), Latvia (9.3%), Poland (7.7%). 2009 imports were also led off by mineral products (29.3%), mechanical and electrical goods (13.1%) and chemical products (12.3%). In 2010 imports came from key partners Russia (32.6%), Germany (10.5%) and Poland (8.8%).
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laurence@mrweb.com
