NYTIMES/ To reduce deficits that threatened the country, Lithuania cut public spending by 30% — including slashing public sector wages 20 to 30% and reducing pensions by as much as 11%. It also raised taxes on many items. But the new austerity has resulted in higher social costs. Suicides have increased where the rate of 35 per 100,000 is already one of the world’s highest. “The internal devaluation strategy may have succeeded in delivering short-term stabilization, but at what cost?” asked professor Charles Woolfson.
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