Budget, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation

The 2014 state budget is historic for a number of reasons, said Dombrovskis.

This is the first state budget to be drafted in the euro currency. Second, the 2014 budget is in line with the National Development Plan and coincides with the start of the European Union's next funding period. Therefore the new budget in fact lays the foundation for the development of Latvia during the next seven years, stressed the premier.

The work on the 2014 budget bill was difficult because, as economic growth resumed in Latvia, some politicians seemed to have forgotten that the budget is not "Santa Claus's bottomless bag of gifts".

Dombrovskis thanked the ruling coalition's majority and the opposition's Union of Greens and Farmers for their statesmanship in voting for forwarding the budget bill to the parliament's committees. At the same time, Dombrovskis hopes that all the coalition parties will support the budget when it is reviewed in the first and second readings.

The main priorities of the 2014 budget include strengthening Latvia's competitiveness, reducing inequality and poverty, and improving the demographic situation.

The next budget is aimed to have increasingly more people feel the positive effect of the economic development of Latvia, said Dombrovskis, adding that the 2014 budget was a growth and development budget.

As reported, Saeima is reviewing the 2014 state budget bill in the first reading today.