Who would borrow 200 lats to repay one thousand or even three after one year? Latvians, however, are making this unbelievable choice ever more often. While many have yet to recover from the crisis, the quick credit business is fully…

When the bustle of Bergen, a large Norwegian city on the country’s west coast, recedes into the night, Inese Liepina and her husband Peteris go to work. Around midnight, Peteris stacks about 1,000 newspapers into Ineses trunk, and about 6,000…

When a year ago, Dzintra Briede got divorced, lost her job and all of her income, this mother of four moved in with her father, who lives in the small village of Bunka, in the Western Latvia. Turns out that…

This week Latvia lost another family. The Birgelis family from Puikules moved to Germany to start a new life, as they couldn’t earn enough money even for bread in Latvia. The story from Puikule: about those that have left and…

he richest 1% of Latvian households earn on average 3018Ls while the bottom 90% of households earn on average 425 Ls per month.

Latvia’s painful austerity program and recent economic growth is presented to the world as a success story and a model for other struggling countries resisting cuts. Re:Baltica’s investigation finds that Latvia has some of the highest poverty, unemployment and income…

At present Latvia’s municipalities set separately the amount and organization of welfare payments. These payments therefore vary greatly according to the revenues of the municipalities. In poorer regions welfare payments are negligible. The World Bank‘s research shows that municipalities paid…

What should be done to improve the lives of those with low-incomes and to reduce social inequality? Here are the main conclusions and expert’s recommendations.

Latvia is a land of extremes. In a country where 42% of children live at risk of poverty and social exclusion, the state can afford to pay 142,000 euros in paternity benefits for one child, and 200,000 euros in unemployment…