No love lost for Euro

  • 2008-07-23
  • Staff and wire reports

EUROLAND: Frankfurt lies at the heart of the EU's economic policy.

VILNIUS - Lithuanians aren't too excited about the prospect of joining the Eurozone a recent Eurobarometer poll shows. The Lithuanians now don't expect to join the single European currency until 2011, rather than in 2009-2010, as was expected by half the population just last September.
Most Lithuanians have a pessimistic attitude towards euro adoption, reports the poll, with 77 percent of those surveyed citing a fear of cheating on prices during the changeover, along with the belief that there will be more negative than positive effects from the new currency.

When asked to evaluate the outcome of the introduction of the euro, 7 out of 9 citizens of the new EU member states expect to see more positive results. Lithuanians and Latvians stand alone in their thinking that the adoption of the euro will bring generally negative results, reports The Baltic Course. 
Some 71 percent of residents in the nine EU countries seeking to replace their national currencies with the single currency believe that the euro-zone entry will have an impact on price increases. The highest percentage of respondents in agreement was in Poland (83 percent), followed by Estonia (78 percent), Slovakia (76 percent) and Lithuania (75 percent).

On the other hand, 51 percent of all respondents in the nine countries expect that the euro will help price stability. Only 40 percent of Lithuanians support this reasoning while in Latvia it was 45 percent.
The majority of the new member states indicated benefits to the new currency: These include easier travel in the EU, purchases in the countries using the euro, and easier and more transparent price comparisons.
Nonetheless, Lithuanians continue to feel that they are quite well-informed about the euro currency, however compared with 2007 data this indicator has dropped from 49 percent to 44 percent.

The countries considering themselves to be the best informed about the introduction of the euro are the Slovaks (64 percent) and Czechs (48 percent). Lithuanians approval rating toward the euro has increased. In the latest poll 40 percent of the respondents said that they would be satisfied with the replacement of the litas. Last September those in support of the changeover was only 34 percent of the public.
Respondents in all nine countries, except for Slovakia which is set to adopt the euro on Jan. 1, 2009, now expect the currency to be introduced at a later date than they expected last year.

The Eurobarometer survey was carried out between May 5 and May 9 this year, with 9,000 people questioned.