Summary

PIIE Senior Fellow Anders Åslund and Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis of Latvia presented the main findings of their new book, How Latvia Came through the Financial Crisis, published by the Institute and released on July 14, 2011. IMF Mission Chief to Latvia Mark Griffiths and PIIE Senior Fellow Simon Johnson offered comments on the book and led the discussion following the authors' presentations.

How Latvia Came through the Financial Crisis is a unique cooperation between one of the Institute's senior fellows and an incumbent prime minister. It explores how Latvia experienced the greatest overheating and the biggest output fall in the financial crisis but managed to restore economic growth in two years with support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union while maintaining its currency peg to the euro. The question is now raised whether Latvia is an example to be followed by Greece and other crisis countries in Southern Europe.

Senior Fellow Anders Åslund joined the Institute in January 2006 and has written widely on postcommunist economic transformations. Valdis Dombrovskis has been prime minister of Latvia since March 2009.

Event Materials

Audio | Video

Book: How Latvia Came through the Financial Crisis
Anders Åslund and Valdis Dombrovskis
May 2011

Presentations
Anders Åslund [pdf] Valdis Dombrovskis [pdf] Mark Griffiths [pdf]
July 14, 2011

News Release: New Book Documents Latvia's Swift Recovery from the Financial Crisis
July 14, 2011