Valkis Dombrovskis is an unassuming man. But few would be surprised were the newly reappointed Latvian prime minister to reveal that his hobbies included fire-walking. Other European leaders may find cutting slivers of state spending hard, but Mr Dombrov-skis has already pushed through a fiscal adjustment worth 8.5% of gdp in 2009 and 4% in 2010. Some wages shrank by a third, gdp last year fell by 18%. Yet nobody rioted. Mr Dombrovskis's Unity party won last month's election with a promise of even more cuts to meet the conditions of an IMF-led €7.5 billion ($10.9 billion) bail-out in 2008.
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