Roundup: Lithuania overcomes main challenges of deteriorating Russian market

Lithuania has already recovered from the main shocks it suffered due to the downturn of the Russian economy, Lithuanian finance minister Rimantas Sadzius said on Wednesday.

"My general impression is that the main burden of problems and the main blow due to the deteriorating situation in Russia has been already countered, and we can say that our economy made it effectively," the minister said in an interview with local broadcaster Ziniu Radijas.

Lithuanian businesses have been redirecting their exports and adjusting manufacturing capacities, Sazius said. Hence, further deterioration of the Russian economy should not hit the Lithuanian market any harder, the minister claimed.

"The fact is that crises in economic relations with the East is not a short-term issue, it will stay here for a longer term, therefore, we should reconcile this idea and reconstruct our strategies and tactics," Sadzius said.

To this end, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, accompanied by a Lithuanian business delegation, is visiting Oman this week.

"We can see Oman as Lithuania's strategic partner in the Persian Gulf. However, trading with this country has not yet gained momentum," Butkevicius was quoted as saying in a government statement, adding the two countries would encourage bilateral investment and international trade, as well as open opportunities for tourism.

The search for new export markets will remain one of the government's most important tasks in 2015, the head of government said earlier this year.

OPENING NEW MARKETS

Russia's market will lose ground as the main export market of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, advisor to the SEB bank president in Vilnius, said at a news conference here on Wednesday.

"Russia will step down from the first export market place, which took 21 percent of all Lithuanian exports last year," he said.

Nauseda echoed finance minister Sadzius' stance that Lithuanian dairy and meat producers had survived through the hardest hit by the collapse of Russian market.

Despite this, the financial analyst said the SEB bank had "no illusions of a rapid recovery of the euro area's economy," but that the main effects of the recent measures taken by the European Central Bank would only produce results in 2016 or 2017 at the earliest, Nauseda foretold.

However, the weakening euro opens new export possibilities for Lithuanian businesses, the economist stressed. Due to cheaper goods in the eurozone and Lithuania, they will become more attractive in the United States, China and the Middle East, Nauseda was quoted as saying by local business website vz.lt.

In December, Sazius predicted the Lithuanian economy would grow to 2.9 percent in 2015. Endit