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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Dombrovskis chosen as Latvian PM | Dombrovskis chosen as Latvian PM |
| (31 minutes later) | |
| Latvia's president has nominated former finance minister Valdis Dombrovskis as prime minister and asked him to form a new coalition government. | Latvia's president has nominated former finance minister Valdis Dombrovskis as prime minister and asked him to form a new coalition government. |
| Valdis Zatlers said he had chosen Mr Dombrovskis because he had sufficient support in parliament and because of his knowledge of finance and economics. | Valdis Zatlers said he had chosen Mr Dombrovskis because he had sufficient support in parliament and because of his knowledge of finance and economics. |
| Mr Dombrovskis, who is a member of the European Parliament, is from the main centre-right opposition party, New Era. | Mr Dombrovskis, who is a member of the European Parliament, is from the main centre-right opposition party, New Era. |
| Ivars Godmanis resigned as PM last week amid economic turmoil in the country. | Ivars Godmanis resigned as PM last week amid economic turmoil in the country. |
| Latvia's economy is in recession and is expected to contract by up to 12% in 2009, with unemployment rising by 50%. | Latvia's economy is in recession and is expected to contract by up to 12% in 2009, with unemployment rising by 50%. |
| Mr Dombrovskis will now hold talks with Latvia's political parties on forming a new government. If they are successful, a list of ministers will be submitted to parliament for a confidence vote. | Mr Dombrovskis will now hold talks with Latvia's political parties on forming a new government. If they are successful, a list of ministers will be submitted to parliament for a confidence vote. |
| "I wish Valdis Dombrovskis luck," Mr Zatlers said on Thursday. | "I wish Valdis Dombrovskis luck," Mr Zatlers said on Thursday. |
| Support lost | |
| Mr Godmanis, a member of the small Latvia's First/Latvia's Way party, resigned on Friday after losing the support of his two main coalition partners - the People's Party and the Union of Greens and Farmers. | |
| Latvia has experienced years of boom, but is now in recession Latvia's economic boom turns sourEuroblog: Latvian hard times | |
| His government had come in for strong criticism over its handling of the economic crisis. | |
| It was forced to seek a 7.5bn-euro ($9.6bn; £6.7bn) bail-out from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and EU in December, after nationalising Latvia's second-biggest bank. | |
| As part of the deal it has had to cut public spending and increase taxes - both unpopular policies. | |
| A protest in the capital, Riga, on 13 January ended in more than 100 arrests and more than 40 injuries. | |
| The Baltic nation was once the fastest growing economy in the European Union, but in the last three months of 2008 it was the worst-performing, with gross domestic product (GDP) falling 10.5%. | |
| Correspondents say a major reason for the decline was that locally-owned banks, which make up 40% of its financial system, were taking deposits from abroad and investing them in the property market. | |
| When the property market begin to decline and foreign credit dried up, confidence in Latvian banks evaporated. |