Zenit Spedition
Destination Latvia

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Latvia - brief overview about the Zenit destination Latvia.

Geopraphy

Located on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, Latvia lies on the East European Plain, however in vegetation is much different than the rest of the plain and shares many similarities with the boreal biome. It consists of fertile, low-lying plains, largely covered by forest, mostly pines, the highest point being the Gaizi?kalns at 311.6 m (1,022 ft). Phytogeographically, Latvia is shared between the Central European and Northern European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the WWF, the territory of Latvia belongs to the ecoregion of Sarmatic mixed forests. The major rivers include the Daugava, the Lielupe, the Gauja, the Venta, and the Salaca. An inlet of the Baltic Sea, the shallow Gulf of Riga is situated in the northwest of the country. Latvia's coastline extends for 531 kilometers.

Demographics

Latvia's population has been multiethnic for centuries, though the demographics shifted dramatically in the twentieth century due to the World Wars, the emigration and removal of Baltic Germans, the Holocaust, and occupation by the Soviet Union. According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, the Latvians formed 68.3% of the total population of 1.93 million; Russians accounted for 12%, Jews for 7.4%, Germans for 6.2%, and Poles for 3.4%.
Latvians and Livonians, the indigenous peoples of Latvia, now form about 59.2% of the population; 28% of the inhabitants are Russians , Belorussians 3.7%, Ukrainians 2.5% , Poles 2.4%, Lithuanians 1.3%, Jews 0.5%, Roma people 0.4%, Germans 0.2%, Estonians 0.1% and others 1.7%. Approximately 56% of the ethnic Russians living in Latvia are citizens of Latvia.[citation needed]
In some large cities, e.g. Riga, Daugavpils and R?zekne, Russians and other minorities outnumber Latvians. Minorities from other countries such as Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, etc., also live in Latvia. The share of ethnic Latvians had fallen from 77% (1,467,035) in 1935 to 52% (1,387,757) in 1989. In 2005 there were even fewer Latvians than in 1989, though their share of the population was larger — 1,357,099 (57.% of the inhabitants).
The official language of Latvia is Latvian, which belongs to the Baltic language group of the Indo-European language family. Another notable language of Latvia is the nearly extinct Livonian language of the Baltic-Finnic subbranch of the Uralic language family, which enjoys protection by law; The Latgalian language — a dialect of Latvian — is also protected by Latvian law as a historical variation of the Latvian language. Russian which was widely spoken during the Soviet period, and also during the Russian Imperial period is by far the most widespread minority language and is also understood by virtually all Latvians who started their education during the Soviet period.

Economy

Latvia is a member of the World Trade Organisation (1999) and the European Union (2004). On 1 January 2014, the Euro became the country's currency, superseding the Lats. According to statistics in late 2013, 45% of the population supported the introduction of the euro, while 52% opposed it.[138] Following the introduction of the Euro, Eurobarometer surveys in January 2014 showed support for the Euro to be around 53%, close to the European average.[139]
Since the year 2000, Latvia has had one of the highest (GDP) growth rates in Europe.[140] However, the chiefly consumption-driven growth in Latvia resulted in the collapse of Latvian GDP in late 2008 and early 2009, exacerbated by the global economic crisis, shortage of credit and huge money resources used for the bailout of Parex bank.[141] The Latvian economy fell 18% in the first three months of 2009, the biggest fall in the European Union.[142][143]
The economic crisis of 2009 proved earlier assumptions that the fast-growing economy was heading for implosion of the economic bubble, because it was driven mainly by growth of domestic consumption, financed by a serious increase of private debt, as well as a negative foreign trade balance. The prices of real estate, which were at some points growing by approximately 5% a month, were long perceived to be too high for the economy, which mainly produces low-value goods and raw materials

Climate

Latvia has a temperate climate that has been described in various sources as either humid continental (Köppen Dfb) or oceanic/maritime (Köppen Cfb).[75][76][77]
Coastal regions, especially the western coast of Courland Peninsula, possess a more maritime climate with cooler summers and milder winters, while eastern parts exhibit a more continental climate with warmer summers and harsher winters.[75]
Latvia has four pronounced seasons of near-equal length. Winter starts in mid-December and lasts until mid-March. Winters have average temperatures of −6 °C (21 °F) and are characterized by stable snow cover, bright sunshine, and short days. Severe spells of winter weather with cold winds, extreme temperatures of around −30 °C (−22 °F) and heavy snowfalls are common. Summer starts in June and lasts until August. Summers are usually warm and sunny, with cool evenings and nights. Summers have average temperatures of around 19 °C (66 °F), with extremes of 35 °C (95 °F). Spring and autumn bring fairly mild weather.

Infrastructure

The transport sector is around 14% of GDP. Transit between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan as well as other Asian countries and the West is large.[152] The three biggest ports of Latvia are located in Riga, Ventspils, and Liepāja. Most transit traffic uses these and half the cargo is crude oil and oil products.[152] Free port of Ventspils is one of the busiest ports in the Baltic states. Apart from road and railway connections, Ventspils is also linked to oil extraction fields and transportation routes of Russian Federation via system of two pipelines from Polotsk, Belarus.[citation needed]
Riga International Airport is the busiest airport in the Baltic states with 4.7 million passengers in 2012. It has direct flight to over 80 destinations in 30 countries. airBaltic is the Latvian flag carrier airline and a low-cost carrier.[citation needed]
Latvia has three big hydroelectric power stations in Pļaviņu HES (825MW), Rīgas HES (402 MW) and Ķeguma HES-2 (192 MW). In the recent years a couple of dozen of wind farms as well as biogas or biomass power stations of different scale have been built in Latvia.[citation needed]
Latvia operates Inčukalns underground gas storage facility, one of the largest underground gas storage facilities in Europe and the only one in the Baltic states. Unique geological conditions at Inčukalns and other locations in Latvia are particularly suitable for underground gas storage

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More Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvia
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