Latvia will face the risk of bankruptcies and hunger

The experts from Latvia expect massive bankruptcy of households in a month and a half. It was reported by Liga Mengelsone, the head of the Latvian Confederation of Employers, on one of the local channels. According to the rough estimates, about a quarter of a million people in the country will lose their basic means of subsistence.

The data on the social payments has proved the deplorable situation, and the survey results indicate that by the beginning of the year, about a third of households (29.5%) were left without any financial savings. Other Latvian residents (40.9%) may have enough savings for three months. Thus, there is one option for the citizens of the Baltic state - to reduce the level of consumption that they had before and thereby extend the survival period for another insignificant period, otherwise the majority of the country's population will become insolvent.

The reason for such a disastrous state of the Latvians was that many of them lost their jobs, but retained the social obligations. They still have to pay utility bills and buy food.

Against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, the problems have worsened. In fact, according to the official statistics, 8.4% of citizens will be able to live comfortably from six months to a year. And only 4.4% of citizens will be able to live more than a year, even if they lose their sources of income.

However, poverty is not the only problem that many residents of Latvia may face in the nearest future or have already faced. The experts are much more concerned about the criminogenic factor. Hunger is often the cause of crimes that people commit in search of food. In this regard, it is useful to analyze the experience of Italy, where citizens, who were forced to stay in quarantine for a long time, robbed the shops. The buyers are openly attacked by robbers to grab the bags with food, and the law enforcement agencies often cannot do anything about it.

The authorities of European countries are trying to solve the problem of profitability, which a lot of people have lost because of the measures against the pandemic.

Neighboring Germany canceled payments for communal services, thereby directing the savings of its citizens to other purposes - the purchase of food, medicine and household items. However, the more difficult economic situation in Latvia does not allow do the same.

As a result, in the conditions of the introduction of the state of emergency in the country, the authorities of the republic adopted amendments to the law on health insurance in the case of motherhood. In particular, it was decided to pay the benefits for adult children if they came of age at the time the emergency was introduced. However, the critics point out that more drastic measures are needed to rectify the situation. The authorities of Latvia have no hope for the support from the EU in the current situation.