A survey commissioned by Citaele Bank, one of the biggest commercial banks in Lithuania, has found that about 46 percent of Lithuanian business representatives suggest that a large scale and non-abating emigration poses the largest social risk to the country's future development.

Commissioned by Citadele Bank and conducted by local polling company Spinter Tyrimai, the results of the private survey was unveiled on Monday.

"Business sector is concerned about emigration because it means diminishing domestic demand," Giedre Kubiliuniene, the head of small and medium business department at Citaele Bank, was quoted as saying in the bank's statement.

Shrinking size of Lithuania's market prevents international brands from coming to the country and reduces the country's attractiveness to foreign investment, Kubiliuniene added.

Ageing society with growing number of retired persons has been ranked by business representatives as the second most important social risk (16 percent), followed by revenues inequality (11 percent) in the third place.

The survey questioning more than 500 small and medium business representatives was conducted in May.

According to Statistics Lithuania, nearly 38,000 persons declared their departure from Lithuania in the first half of 2017, compared to around 21,000 in the same period last year.

Statistics shows that the number of Lithuanian residents decreased from 3.7 million in 1990 to around 2.8 million in 2017.

Lithuania's emigration rate is among the highest in the European Union.