The largest and most populous of the Baltic states, Lithuania is a generally maritime country with about 100 km of sandy coastline, of which only 38 km face the open Baltic Sea. Lithuania's major warm-water port of Klaipeda lies at the narrow mouth of Kursiu Gulf[?], a shallow lagoon extending south to Kaliningrad. The main river Nemunas[?] and some of its tributaries are used for internal shipping.
The Lithuanian landscape is glacially flat, except for morainic hills in the western uplands and eastern highlands no higher than 300 meters, with the highest point being the Juozapines[?] at 292 m. The terrain is marked by numerous small lakes and swamps, and a mixed forest zone covers 30% of the country. The climate lies between martitime and continental, with wet, moderate winters and summers. According to some geographers, Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, lies at the geographical centre of Europe.
Lithuania, the Baltic state that has conducted the most trade with Russia, has been slowly rebounding from the 1998 Russian financial crisis. High unemployment, at 12.5% in 2001, and weak consumption have held back recovery. Trade has been increasingly oriented toward the West. Lithuania has gained membership in the World Trade Organisation and has moved ahead with plans to join the European Union in 2004. Privatisation of the large, state-owned utilities, particularly in the energy sector, is underway. The litas[?], the national currency, has been pegged to the euro since February 2, 2002.
Over 80% of the Lithuanian population is ethnically Lithuanian and speaks the Lithuanian language, one of the two remaining living members of the Baltic language group, which is also the only official state language. Several sizable minorities exist, such as Russians (8%), Poles (7%) and Belarusians (1.5%), and each respective language is also spoken in Lithuania.
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