Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania: 1st quarter 2009 figures

Eurostat has released figures for 1st quarter of 2009.

- they confirm the collapse of the Baltic economies with Latvia leading the chain of the GDP freefall (-18.6%). Estonia, -15.6%, and Lithuania, -11.8%, are following closely. The report here.

- volume of retail trade is quite catastrophic: by order of importance, Latvia is still doing the worse with -29.6% in April compared to April 2008; then comes Lithuania (-19.5%) and Estonia (-18%)

- Unemployment rates follow the same trend:
o Estonia: 13.9% in April (was 3.7% in April 2008 and 7.1% in October 2008)
o Lithuania: 16.8%
o Latvia: 17.4%