US-based biotech giant Biogen has this week launched operations in Lithuania where it plans to carry out clinical trials and other projects with local partners. Biogen said on Friday it opened its office in Vilnius on December 1.

Average gross monthly wages rose by 3% to 1,603.4 euros in the region of Vilnius and went up by 5.2% to 1,339.3 euros in the rest of Lithuania in the third quarter compared to the second quarter 2020.

Eliq, a Swedish company developing customer engagement software for energy suppliers, has announced plans to open a product development office in Vilnius.

Lithuania's pipeline construction company MT Group has been awarded a contract worth almost 64 million euros to build a Polish segment of the Baltic Pipe pipeline that will link Norway with Denmark and Poland.

Lithuania's economy expanded by a seasonally and calendar-adjusted 3.8% in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the second quarter to reach 13.2 billion euros, according to the second estimate of GDP released by the country's statistics office on December 1st.

The Lithuanian central government sector's deficit reached 2.99 bn euros in January-October 2020, versus a surplus of 352.2 mln euros in the same period last year, the Finance Ministry said.

Latvia's airBaltic national carrier decided to set up a branch in Lithuania because it wants to fly to the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv, and flights to this destination from Latvia are currently banned.

The real estate and construction market remains resilient in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic, yet its different segments are painting a mixed picture. Having recovered after the initial shock in spring 2020, the housing market is now showing historically high activity levels. However, the expected increase in the office vacancy rate signals serious challenges encountered by the commercial real estate market. These and other developments were discussed at the Annual Bank of Lithuania Real Estate Conference held online on 24 November.

Lithuania's monthly annual deflation rate, as measured by the EU Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), stood at 0.2% in November, initial data from the country's statistics office, Statistics Lithuania, showed on Friday.

Lithuania's electricity production increased to 1.373 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the third quarter of 2020, up by 19% from the second quarter and up by 55% year-on-year, as imports, especially from Russia and Belarus, declined.