Viciunu Grupe (Viciunai Group), a company owned by Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijosaitis, will open the construction of DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in spring 2018, a year behind the original schedule.

Lithuania's non-financial companies posted 4.4 billion euros in pre-tax profits in the first nine months of 2017, while their revenue totaled at 58 billion euros, Statistics Lithuania said on December 11th.

Statistics Lithuania informs that, based on non-final data obtained from customs declarations, Intrastat reporting and VAT returns data, exports in October 2017 amounted to EUR 2.37 billion, imports – EUR 2.53 billion. Exports of goods of Lithuanian origin amounted to EUR 1.37 billion. The foreign trade deficit of Lithuania amounted to EUR 160.3 million.

The Klaipeda liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal's maintenance costs for gas consumers is likely to rise by slightly more than 7% in 2018.

It is the right time now to invest in boosting long-term growth potential, Swedbank says in its latest Baltic Sea Region Report. "The upswing in global growth has lifted the Baltic See region’s economies to their cyclical peaks. Growth will slow, but there are at least a few good years of strong growth down the road. Geopolitics and a resurgence of populism are the key risks. Strong growth is the time to reform, correct for imbalances, and invest in boosting long-term growth potential," the authors of the report note.

Lithuania's state-controlled energy terminals operator Klaipedos Nafta (Klaipeda Oil) plans to invest up to 20.9 million euros, including VAT, in upgrading the port's quays used by its oil terminal.

Electricity prices in the Baltic countries rose by 6% on average last week, driven up by increased demand due to lower temperatures, as well as lower wind and precipitation levels and growing exports to European markets, especially Germany, Elektrum Lietuva said on December 5th.

A total of 26,800 new passenger cars were registered in Lithuania in January through November 2017, up 25% from 21,500 in the same period last year, Autotyrimai said on December 1st, based on data from the state car registration company Regitra.

Lithuania's excise duty on diesel fuel will rise in January 2018 and a hike in the tax on tobacco products will follow in March 2018.

The European Commission has today unveiled new tools to make the EU's Value Added Tax (VAT) system more fraud-proof and close loopholes which can lead to large-scale VAT fraud.