Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), stevedoring company Bega, state-controlled energy terminals operator Klaipedos Nafta (Klaipeda Oil), the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and the Klaipeda University on Thursday signed an agreement on development of the railway locomotive powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Lithuanian and Swedish power transmission system operators and Sweden's ABB have agreed on repairing the NordBalt power interconnection, which frequently experiences technical problems, but no agreement has been signed yet.

Statistics Lithuania informs that in March 2017 the consumer confidence indicator stood at minus 10; against February, it remained unchanged. More pessimistic expectations for the changes in unemployment figures in the coming 12 months were counterbalanced by more optimistic expectations for making at least some savings.

Estonian-owned real estate investment management company Capital Mill plans to invest 3.3 mln euros in a major renovation of a Rimi store in Vilnius, with YIT Kausta, a leading Lithuanian building company, expected to complete the work by late September.

On Wednesday, 29 March the board of independent experts has decided that Kaunas is the city, which will become European Capital of Culture 2022. There were two candidate cities in Lithuania – Kaunas and Klaipėda.

On 29 March, 2017, the Bank of Lithuania granted a non-restricted Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license to IBS Lithuania, the European branch of Hong Kong-based Fintech company – International Business Settlement Holdings Limited. The newly issued non-restricted EMI license with the EU passporting allows IBS Lithuania to provide electronic money issuance and redemption as well as payment services across all the European Union countries, told Invest Lithuania.

Plans to make it easier to move money around within the EU’s long-run budget, to help tackle urgent challenges such as the migration crisis, strengthening security, boosting growth and creating jobs, were backed by the Budgets Committee on Monday. Parliament has long fought for greater flexibility within the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), which would apply for the remainder of the 2014-2020 MFF.

Last year, banks granted many more loans to customers. This grew bank assets, increased their income and profits. Deposits with banks increased in number; as the economic condition improved, non-performing loans decreased. The banking system was well capitalised. Strengthening of capital was still relevant for domestic banks.

Broader export opportunities are opening up for Lithuanian meat processors in the wake of Brazil's spoiled meat and corruption scandal involving two large international companies, JBS and BRF, and several tens of smaller market players.

Klaipedos Juru Kroviniu Kompanija (Klaipeda Stevedoring Company, or Klasco), which is part of Achemos Grupe (Achema Group), will distribute 3.47 mln euros as dividends to shareholders, or 0.233 euros per share, after posting a 50-mln-euro pretax profit for 2016.