Latvia exports cars to Ghana

Latvia, which does not produce any vehicles now exports cars to other parts of the world including Ghana.

A Bloomberg news report says Latvia has become a net exporter of cars as banks in the bail-out dependent Baltic state liquidate vehicles that were pledged as collateral by insolvent borrowers.

Citing data from the Riga-based statistics office, the Bloomberg said the value of exported cars was 86.3 million lati ($174 million) in 2009 through October, compared with imports of 81 million lati in the period. That it says corresponds to 10,092 exported passenger vehicles, and 8,509 in car imports in the first 10 months.

Most of the cars according to the report were shipped to Germany, Belarus, Estonia and Lithuania, with Germany alone importing 3,122 cars from Latvia in the first 10 months.

No specific figure was available for exports to Ghana.

Latvia also shipped cars to countries as far away as New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Guinea-Bissau and Costa Rica, according to the statistics office.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi