The World Bank has recently announced that the GDP growth in Lithuania in 2005 and 2006 will continuously remain one of the most significant among the 8 new EU Members.
It has been forecasted that the GDP increase in Lithuania will reach 6.2 % in 2005, and 6 % next year. According to the figures announced by the Lithuanian Department of Statistics, Lithuania’s exports and imports grew 24.2 % and 18.4 % respectively, and the flow of foreign direct investments (FDI) increased by 8.3 % during the first half of the present year.

Thomas Blatt Laursen, the Lead Economist at the World Bank, has noted that the successful economic development of Lithuania and all the other new EU Members has been influenced neither by the rising prices on the world market of oil products, nor by the economic stagnation of Western countries.