Gitanas Nausėda, an adviser to the president of SEB Bankas, believes the probability of Lithuania complying with the euro adoption criteria in the near future and being able to switch over to the single currency is between 60 and 70 percent. According to him, this is the first time that this probability exceeds 50 percent.
Meanwhile Nerijus Mačiulis, Swedbank’s chief economist, believes that Lithuania’s chances to adopt the euro in 2015 do not exceed 50 percent, since the growth of consumer prices is decelerating in all euro zone countries and the inflation criterion will be slightly above 2 percent early next year.
He expects the inflation in Lithuania to grow to 3.4 percent next year, from 2.5 percent this year. As a result, the country’s average annual inflation, which is compared with the Maastricht price stability criterion, will increase as well.
