Lithuanian growth slows in Q2

Lithuania's economy grew by 0.2 percent in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter, official data showed on Thursday. In the first-quarter of 2011, revised figures showed 3.5 percent GDP growth compared to the previous three months, after growth of 0.3 and 1.8 percent in the third and fourth quarters respectively of 2010. Lithuania, a nation of three million, enjoyed robust growth following European Union entry in 2004, 14 years after it split from the crumbling Soviet bloc. This was thanks to exports, rising wages and money sent home by hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians working elsewhere in the EU, notably Britain and Ireland. But it was hit hard by the 2008 global financial crisis and its economy shrank by 14.8 percent the following year. Lithuania's centre-right government responded with a deep austerity drive and was rewarded with a return to growth in 2010, recording 1.3 percent over the year as a whole compared to 2009. The country's finance ministry has forecast 5.8 percent growth for this year.