29% of respondents think that 2018 in Latvia was better than the previous year, and the overall level of satisfaction ranks 2018 as second only to 2006.
SKDS has surveyed a thousand people every December since 1999 to reflect on and assess the year, Arnis Kaktiņš, director of the research center, told Latvian Radio.
"If we count the index against those who say that this year was better for Latvia and those who say that the year has been worse, then we actually get the second best rating since 1999. If we look at what people say about themselves personally, as they reach the end of the year, it's a pretty similar picture," Kaktiņš said.
"Only in 2006 did the population say that the year they were leaving was better. But what was happening in 2006? If we remember, they were the so-called 'fat years,'"' Kaktins said, using a term that now has a decidedly double-edged quality.
The "fat years" under Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis were initially touted as an economic miracle with wages and standards of living rising quickly, credit being handed out with few checks, property speculation rife and unemployment minimal. However, the spectacular economic crash that followed in 2007 showed that much of the optimism was misplaced.
Hopefully the pattern will not be repeated in 2019.
