The Lithuanian PM – The Economist Intel Unit is wrong!

As the Ziniu Radijas states the Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas has denied forecasts of experts of the influential British business publication The Economist that the current minority government will not last until next parliamentary elections.

“I read the forecasts myself and they are based on false presumptions, I do not know where did they get such numbers that, for example, the economical growth this year will be 6.5 percent and will slow even more next year. First of all, the growth of our economy this year already exceeds 8 percent. Somehow Lithuanian statistics does not get into the foreign media,” the prime minister told to Ziniu Radijas.Kirkilas has acknowledged that it will not be easy for the government to last until the next parliamentary elections that will take place in fall 2008, but in his words, “democracy is democracy, anything can happen.”The research and consultations department Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of the influential British business publication.

The Economist published its forecasts on Wednesday that Kirkilas’s minority government is secure for the next few months, as it has the parliamentary support of the Homeland Union. However, the government is unlikely to last in its present form until the parliamentary elections.

The EIU experts also expect that real GDP growth to slow from an estimated 7.3 percent in 2006 to 6.5 percent in 2007 and to 6.4 percent in 2008, as domestic demand growth moderates.In the experts’ opinion, Lithuania’s fiscal policy will tighten slightly in 2007 to restrain inflation, then loosen moderately in 2008, owing to tax cuts and pre-election spending. According to the BNS the current fourteenth government led by Social Democrat Gediminas Kirkilas begun its term, Jul.18 2006. In the coalition government of the centrist-left minority, the prime minister’s post and 7 posts of ministers belong to the Social Democrats, 3 to the Farmers Union, 2 to Liberal Centrists and 1 to the Civil Democrats.

The minority government has 58 seats in the parliament, but it is supported by formally oppositional Homeland Union (Lithuanian Conservatives), which have 24 mandates in the parliament. The total number of seats in the parliament is 141.The constitution of the coalition government is almost the same after a year — only one minister has changed: Vice-Minister of the Finance Ministry Rimantas Sadzius has replaced the Social Democrat Zigmantas Balcytis in the post of the finance minister.