Lithuania marks 100 days since euro adoption

On 9 April, at a meeting of the Coordinating Committee on the Euro Adoption, presided over by Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, the information about the process of adoption of the euro in Lithuania was presented.

During the meeting, which was attended by Minister of Finance, Rimantas Sadzius; and Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, Vitas Vasiliauskas, it was stated that the euro adoption in Lithuania has been excellently coordinated and well-organised, euro.lt reports.

"On behalf of the Coordinating Committee on the Euro Adoption in the Republic of Lithuania, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to adoption of the euro in Lithuania: business, the state authorities, and the public who successfully without any significant issues adopted the new currency. The euro has been circulating in Lithuania for 100 days," said Butkevicius.

The Committee stated that the busiest phase of the currency exchange is over. It has run smoothly and most of the litas that used to be in circulation have now been exchanged.

Identified violations related to the unfair conversion of prices of goods and services from litas to euro have been decreasing for six months in a row. In addition to this, the greatest fear of the public: that after adoption of the euro prices of goods and services would go up has not materialised. In the first months of the year, Statistics Lithuania recorded a decrease in the average retail price (deflation) of 100 basic homogeneous consumer goods and services in this country.

Thanks to Lithuania's adoption of the euro, the country's credit ratings improved, and the costs of borrowing and currency exchange decreased. It is estimated that over the first three months residents, business and the public sector saved approximately 8.68 million euros in litas-to-euro exchange costs.