There are virtually no restrictions on cash and capital flows to and from Latvia. The Bank of Latvia ensures the convertibility of the lats by buying and selling unlimited amounts of the SDR basket currencies to banks at their request. In 2000, the Bank of Latvia introduced the interbank automated payment system (SAMS), which is a real-time gross settlement system.
Our debt-to-GDP ratio was at 151.3% in September of that year and our external reserves had depleted to below one month of imports as at October 2008. The country then embarked on a macroeconomic programme with the support of the IMF and as the saying goes, the rest is history.