Price rise of goods not affected by euro introduction, says Lithuania PM

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algridas Butkevicius has said the increase in prices of certain goods is not related to the country joining the euro next year.

Lithuania becomes the 19th eurozone member after its adopts the euro currency on January 1, 2014.

But the Prime Minister believes the growing prices of solid fuels and dairy products was not related to the country joining the eurozone.

"Statistics Lithuania says that primary factors that affected changing prices were return of prices after July's discounts and seasonality. Thus, it is wrong to link price growth of separate goods or services only with the euro introduction," the prime minister said in a statement.

According to the head of the government, the trend is confirmed by a statistical analysis conducted by the Government's Economic Analysis Department.

The prices of consumer goods and services in August fell by 0.1 percent. However, some prices grew including solid fuels per year increased by 15.3 percent, milk and dairy products' by 4.9 percent, fruit by 5.6 percent. 

Some prices increased before the euro adoption was approved and could have been affected by global price growth of raw materials, ELTA reports.

Meanwhile, the price increase could be due to businessmen taking advantage of the euro introduction and increasing prices, Butkevicius says.