"This year was not bad, but what we anticipated this year may come true next year," it quoted Linas Lasiauskas, the head of the Lithuanian Apparel and Textile Industry Association, as saying.
Lasiauskas said that returning orders from such countries as China had helped the apparel sector to maintain stability. That offset a slowdown in consumption, which means falling orders from the EU. He said that signals coming from Northern Europe were not optimistic.
Aleksandr Izgorodin, an analyst at the Lithuanian Industrialists' Confederation, said that the manufacturing industry was currently playing a particularly important role in Lithuania's economy, with industrial goods accounting for 83 percent of all exports. Exports to the CIS markets rose by 38 percent in the third quarter and exports to the Baltic countries were up by 14.6 percent.
"The Russian economy has not yet felt a direct impact of the global economic slowdown, with consumption being boosted by crediting. Credits to households have increased by 43 percent in a year, and credits to businesses, by 24 percent. Russian government spending, including on economic stimulus, was raised by one-fifth during the first half," he said.
