* At 5th of March 1993 exchange rate have been as follows: 0.757 LVL per 1 USD, but today - 0.592 LVL per 1 USD.

* Month inflation in 1993 was 2.4%

* Year inflation (since last year march) at March 1993 was 256.1%, today - under 7%.

* There were about 87 millions lats in circulation at the beginning of March 1993 ensured with gold and hard currencies for 98%. Today there are about 358 millions lats in circulation and financial security for 108.5%

* The Lat was put into circulation in parallel with Latvian rublis with exchange rate: 200 LVR = 1 LVL.

* The white loaf price in March 1993 was 20 LVR or 0.1 LVL. Exchange rate allowed coins of low denominations (santims) to preserve their value till nowdays.

* The average civil servant wage per month in 1993 was 51.78 Lats, in 1997 - 124.43 Lats.

* The "5 Lati" note is the most popular - there are about 11 millions "5 Lati" notes in circulation today. But gradually the higher denomination notes replace the lower ones. For example, in 1997 the growth of of paper money mass was 28%, but "5 Lati" notes reduced about 8%.

* At the end of March 1997 the new issue of "5 Lati" note was put into circulation, a little bit different from previous. The main reason of this issue was to provide more security against forgering - new hologramm metallic strip, more wider than in first issue.

* Since the "5 Lati" notes are the most used in circulation, they wear out faster than others. At present time the Bank of Latvia have destroyed more than 39 millions of "5 Lati" notes.

---

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page