Country name: Republic of Lithuania
Location: Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Latvia and Russia
Area: 65,200 sq km
Population: 3,585,906 (July 2006 est.)
Capital: Vilnius
Language: Lithuanian (official) 82%, Russian 8%, Polish 5.6%, other and unspecified 4.4% (2001 census)
Natural resources: peat, arable land, amber
Government type: parliamentary democracy
Legal system: based on civil law system; legislative acts can be appealed to the constitutional court
Currency: litas (LTL)
The Republic of Lithuania is a country situated in Northeastern Europe with a total area comprising of 65,250 square kilometers and a population of approximately 3,450,000 people. The capital city is Vilnius. Lithuania shares borders with four other countries: with Latvia to the North, with Belarus to the Southeast and with Poland and an exclave of Russia to the Southwest. The relief of the country is quite similar to those of the other Baltic states- low plain with a lot of spread out lakes and a highest altitude is 293 meters. Due to its location, the climate is a mixture of continental and maritime type of climate. Waves of humid air masses are as a result of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. Summers and winters are particularly moderate with no high temperatures. The influence of the Baltic Sea is not strong due to the narrow coastline.
During the middle Ages, Lithuania was a powerful state which everybody had to take into consideration. Consequently, they united with Poland but the union collapsed in the end of the 18th century resulting in Lithuania losing its independence. The country was predominated by the Russian Empire. It regained its independence after the WW I but in 1940 was taken over by the USSR. Lithuania was the first country of all communist republics to proclaim independence in 1990. Lithuania did exactly what other former communist countries did- they restructured their economy towards Western models and transferred the property rights of state-owned enterprises into private ownership. Eventually, Lithuania joined the EU and NATO in 2004.
Unlike the other two Baltic States, the population of Lithuania is highly homogeneous with Lithuanians comprising of more than 80% of the population. There are also Russians and Poles who comprise a small part of the whole population. The official religion of the country is Roman Catholic which has survived since its acceptance in the late 14th century. The greater part of the population (around 80%) is Roman Catholic; other religions are Russian Orthodox, Protestant and others. The official language of the country is Lithuanian, however Russian and Polish are also spoken.
Republic of Lithuania is a parliamentary democracy. Its currency is Litas (LTL). 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 2.19 LTL, while 1 Euro can be exchanged for 3.45 LTL.
After gaining independence in 1990, Lithuania started the process of privatization by a massive conversion of state property into private ownership. Although at the beginning of the 1990s the unemployment rate was low, an increase had been predicted due to the shift to capitalist economy. However, the country’s movement towards market economy was not as smooth as expected due to its trade dependence on USSR, which on its own side was in deep crisis. Lithuania was dependent on the trade with natural resources such oil, natural gas and other materials. That period was over in 1998, when the economy became stable, with rising incomes and a steady low rate of unemployment at around 3%. Since the new millennium the country has experienced high levels of growth of the real GDP of around 7-8 %. That steady increase has been due to an increased domestic demand that increased the profits of domestic corporations, also the increase in exports of goods and services, fast growth in some of the major economic sectors such as communication, trade, transport, energy and industry. One problem for the country is the continuously high inflation of around 6%( The inflation rate for December 2007 was around 8%).
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