Analysts do not see euro in Lithuania until 2014

Rokas Bancevičius told BNS that he supports the government's current stance to seek to comply with the euro entry criteria and then decide by itself on joining the single currency.

"But there's no chance of this happening at least until 2014," he said.

The analyst noted that Sweden, a EU member state since 1995, keeps pushing back the euro adoption date on the grounds of its formal non-compliance with at least one entry criterion.

Rimantas Rudzkis, financial analyst who advises DNB, said that Lithuania would benefit from joining the single currency despite the eurozone's current financial woes.

"Certainly, yes. As soon as we have to comment on Lithuania's woes again, we will be commenting on litas devaluation scenarios," he said while presenting DNB's latest economic forecasts.

Bancevičius estimates that once becoming a member of the euro club, Lithuania would have to contribute around 240 million euros in five years.

"This may not be very big money, but this is what we should pay attention to," he said.

Lithuania committed itself to joining the euro when it entered the EU.

In order to adopt the single currency, a country must keep its budget deficit within 3 percent of GDP, public debt at no more than 60 percent of GDP and average annual inflation rate within 1.5 percentage points of the average of the three best performing EU countries in terms of price stability.