Just as the European Central Bank (ECB) began raising benchmark interest rates, Latvia saw one of the fastest rises in interest rates in the eurozone. Now that they are starting to decline, the question becomes whether rates will fall just as quickly, creating an attractive environment for both home buying and business development. Since a new business cycle has begun, it is important for Latvian companies to invest in development now in order to catch up with their competitors in Lithuania and Estonia. However, for now, local businesses are more cautious in their vision of the future, experts said during the discussion "Interest rates are falling. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?", organized by the Bank of Latvia (BL). The situation is gradually improving, the ECB's decisions to raise rates have led to a decrease in inflation , and the worst scenarios of a deep recession in national economies did not come true, said Martins Bitans, deputy head of the BL Monetary Policy Department, during the discussions. However, the impact on the economy was significant – from the moment rates began to rise, the growth of European economies was relatively low and conditional stagnation prevailed. At the same time, as Swedbank’s chief economist in Latvia, Liva Sorgenfreya, noted, fluctuations in economic growth indicators were contributed not only by rates, but
