"I see demographic problems as the biggest threat to the country's economy. In the long term, the country's economic development will be directly dependent upon the demographic situation," Dargis said in an interview to Lietuvos Žinios daily.
He noted the statistics, predicting that Lithuania's working-age population will shrink by 350,000 in 2021. In Dargis' words, demographic problems are a problem in other European countries, including the largest economy Germany; unlike the latter, however, Lithuania "has not yet taken due concern in the dropping population numbers."
In the shorter term, Lithuania's economic perspectives will depend on the settlement of the debt crisis by the European Union, Dargis said. In his words, the current economic growth built on exports "indicates our business potential, capacities, organization and shift of focus from certain markets to others, restructuring of production, financial and human resources in companies."
Some 2.979 million people resided in Lithuania in the beginning of 2013, indicating a drop by over 28,000 year-on-year, according to data published by the Statistics Department.
In 2009, Lithuania's economy declined by 14.8 percent but saw humble growth of 1.4 percent the following year. The gross domestic product (GDP) went up by 6 percent in 2011 and is forecast to have grown by 3.5 percent last year, with a 3-percent increase expected this year. Lithuania's indicators are considerably better than those of the euro zone, which is forecast to undergo a slight contraction in 2012 and 2013.
