Lithuanian euros have arrived, but they arrived with seven years late. The litas was linked to the euro since 2002 and the changeover to the euro was originally planned in 2007, but the crisis has just delayed. Lithuania and the last of the three Baltic republics to adopt the single currency. Estonia did in 2011 and Latvia in 2014. The positive experience of its two neighbors had a reassuring effect and encouraged Vilnius to walk in their footsteps.
Now, the eurozone has 19 of the 28 countries of the European Union. In other words, 337 million Europeans share the same currency. In Lithuania, they are three million.
To balance its public accounts and restart growth, Lithuania has resorted to severe budget cuts, forcing some 150,000 Lithuanians to emigrate, particularly to Britain.
Today, growth of the projections are again largely in the green. GDP is expected to grow by 2.9% in 2014. The 2009 vertiginous fall is a bad memory. The adoption of the euro could make the Lithuanian GDP up 1.3% in the long term. The single currency will also benefit the Lithuanian exports, 60% of which are to the EU.
But there are other consequences as the analyst IG Market Alastair McCaig: "There obviously has, historically, a sense of insecurity felt by many in the Baltic countries that lie between Russia and West, and I think that any strengthening of their ties to the world of Western business contributes to reassure them. "
To distance itself from Russia through energy independence, an obsession for Lithuania. The arrival in late October of a floating liquefied natural gas is expected to contribute, as it will allow this small country in the coming months, to import gas from Norway.
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