With the new school year roughly a month away, parents across Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are confronting a familiar late-summer ritual — buying supplies, uniforms and textbooks — made noticeably more expensive this year by a combination of persistent inflation in specific categories and a stronger euro pushing up the price of imported school goods.
What’s driving the increase
Retail associations across the three countries report back-to-school basket costs up between 5% and 8% compared with last year, driven largely by clothing, footwear and electronics rather than basic stationery, where prices have stayed relatively flat. Much of that increase traces to the same currency dynamics reshaping Baltic exporters’ margins this autumn — a stronger euro cuts import costs for some goods but has coincided with broader price pressure in imported consumer electronics sourced from Asian and US suppliers. Latvia’s Central Statistical Bureau estimates the average family with two school-age children will spend approximately €340 on supplies, clothing and equipment this year, up from €315 in 2025. Lithuanian and Estonian figures track closely, at roughly €360 and €330 respectively, according to national retail federation estimates.
How families are adjusting
Household budgeting surveys conducted by national statistics offices this summer show a clear trend: more families reporting they are buying secondhand uniforms and reusing electronics from previous years rather than replacing them outright. Secondhand clothing and school supply exchange groups on social media have seen membership climb sharply in Riga and Vilnius over the past two months. Textbook costs remain the one category largely insulated from the trend, since all three countries provide core textbooks free of charge through public schools, leaving families to cover supplementary materials, workbooks and extracurricular equipment instead.
Where governments are stepping in
Latvia’s Ministry of Welfare has expanded a means-tested back-to-school grant this year, following similar moves in Lithuania and Estonia aimed at cushioning the cost for lower-income households. Uptake of these programmes has grown steadily each year since their introduction, a trend officials attribute both to expanding eligibility criteria and to growing public awareness of the support available.
A cost families expect to keep rising
Consumer researchers say the trend toward higher back-to-school costs has held for three consecutive years now across the region, tracking a broader pattern of resilient price pressure in clothing and electronics categories even as headline inflation has eased elsewhere in the economy. Retailers, for their part, have leaned into the shift rather than resisting it, with several major chains in all three capitals expanding dedicated secondhand and discount back-to-school sections for the first time this year — a tacit acknowledgment that thriftier shopping habits are likely here to stay.
