Riga - The prime minister of Belarus, Sergey Sidorski, took advantage of his new-found freedom to travel Wednesday by visiting neighbouring Latvia in his first official trip to a European Union member state since travel restrictions on members of the Belarusian government were lifted on October 13.

Transport and business were on the agenda when Sidorski met his Latvian counterpart, Ivars Godmanis, but no mention was made of sensitive issues such as human rights or missile systems.

Riga - Prices tumbled again on Baltic stock markets Tuesday with the Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), combining data from the Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius exchanges, closing down 3.2 per cent at 270.22.

The NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia fell 3.22 per cent, the Vilnius exchange in Lithuania slipped 2.74 per cent and the Riga exchange in Latvia eased by 1.37 per cent.

Riga - A government bailout of Latvia's largest indigenous bank, Parex Banka, was set to be finalized Monday after the European Commission (EC) signalled it would not block the deal.

Latvian Finance Ministry spokesperson Diana Berzina told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that an "unofficial okay" had been received from the EC along with their comments on the deal.

She added that final confirmation from the EC was likely one or two days after the legal document was due to be signed in a closed meeting on Monday night.

Riga - With sales of new cars in Latvia shrinking by more than a third in the first ten months of 2008 according to figures released Monday, it was left to carmakers at opposite ends of the price spectrum to report the strongest results.

Total sales of new cars in the Baltic country for January to October dropped to 10,434 from 17,239 in the same period last year, according to the Latvian Authorized Car Dealers Association.

Riga - There was mixed news on the Latvian economy Monday with official statistics recording a month-on-month rise in the consumer price index (CPI) inflation figures but a continuing downward trend year-on-year.

The Latvian Central Statistical Bureau said that compared to September 2008 inflation for October 2008 rose by 1.2 per cent to stand at 13.8 per cent year-on-year.

In September, Latvian annual inflation was 14.9 percent.