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Lagarde: Latvia «bit the bullet» and took action
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Christine Lagarde
«Who could have thought some years ago that we will today be here together celebrating our success after a three-year-long hard work period,» head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde said today as she opened the conference «Against the Odds: Lessons from the Recovery in the Baltics».
Lagarde emphasized that the Baltic has went through a very hard period adding that «it definitely was not luck» what caused Latvia’s success.
Lagarde used the tone to emphasize many responsible and hard decisions made by Latvian politicians – especially the impressive mutual determination to overcome the crisis, as well as the strict political position. «Everybody knew what had to be done, they all knew mistakes and how to resolve them. However, the knowledge alone doesn’t work. You decided to «bite the bullet» and take action – strictly and rapidly.»
Lagarde emphasized that Latvia knew where the way out was, it marked out the aim to join Europe which was followed by particular criteria and tasks that helped to improve the country’s competitiveness.
However, she added that one of the current aims is to keep seeing the «finish line», accomplish tasks and integrate in the European Union.
No matter how Latvia manages to accomplish theses tasks, Lagarde added it was important to advance activity of the labour force. That is, switch from theory to practice and follow reforms in the market maintaining the economic growth. Here, one of the most important factors is to understand the correlation between what the market needs and what it has, including the education, the head of IMF said.
Finally, Lagarde pointed out that we should not forget about social guarantees, and unequal income rate is one of the many points the Latvian government has to work at.
Lagarde ended her speech with words of a famous Latvian poet «What keeps changing, will keep existing», noting that success of the programme is a great achievement which serves as a model to other countries. «IMF is proud to be part of this «story»», said Lagarde.
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Bigidule @ 2013-05-20 15:22:24
45000 for these charlattans. They have money to waste unless it is bribe for some politics.
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jj @ 2013-05-19 19:31:35
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J. @ 2013-05-19 16:14:44
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Ilmars @ 2013-05-17 16:48:38
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Well @ 2013-05-17 11:44:03
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Well, let’s see in 3-6 months if it was all worth it. If current predictions on future developments of the Eurozone become reality I wonder how markets like LV will be impacted.
Serving the oligarchs = the right thing according to the IMF