Statistics Lithuania informs that, based on provisional data, in February 2015, the turnover (VAT excluded) of retail trade enterprises* amounted to EUR 601.4 million; against January, it decreased by 4.3% at constant prices (seasonally and working day adjusted – grew by 1%).

Tackling tax evasion should be a top EU priority. EU countries and the European Commission should play a leading role in discussing how to fight tax fraud and aggressive tax planning in the OECD and other relevant fora, says Parliament in its resolution on tax, voted on Wednesday.

The Lithuanian Government managed to find additional funding to facilitate the search of new export markets and business partners.

Lithuania's National Commission for Energy Control and Prices (VKEKK) on March 26th 2015 fined Lithuania's electricity transmission system operator Litgrid EUR 100,000.

The surplus balances of services and of secondary income did not offset the foreign trade and primary income balances; this led to the build-up of an EUR 36.8 million current account balance (CAB) deficit in the country's balance of payments in Q4 2014.

The Board of the Bank of Lithuania approved the Macroprudential Policy Strategy, by implementing which the country's central bank will contribute to the protection of the stability of the country's financial system, enhance the financial system's resilience and reduce the possibilities for the formation of systemic risks to ensure a sustainable contribution of the financial sector to economic growth.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to the third quarter of 2014, housing prices in Lithuania dropped by 4.3%. Prices of old construction housing decreased the most, by 4.7%. Of them, prices of flats in one and two dwelling buildings decreased by 17.2%, while in multi-dwelling buildings by 1%.

After evaluating Lithuania's economic situation and the impact of external factors on its economic growth tendencies, the Ministry of Finance has revised main macroeconomic projections for 2015-2017 and prepared projections for 2018.

The total volume of investments in commercial real estate in the Baltics exceeded EUR 850 million in 2014, compared to EUR 784.2 million in 2013, reports BC marketing coordinator from Colliers Kristine Spundina.

In February 2015, imports of natural gas to Estonia reached 58.5 million cubic meters; the gas bought by new gas market participants from Lithuania amounted to almost 10 million cubic meters, or 17% of total imports.